One of my favorite birds….is the Finch!  I have just begun to see flashes of these bright yellow and black birds darting as a group among the reeds and fields by my house. Alas, never being able to put my camera into action to collect a new and current colorful Spring image!  Began thinking, why not peruse through my files and at least present their colorful story for my next Photo of the Week article.

This handsome little finch, the state bird of New Jersey, Iowa, and Washington, is welcome and common at feeders, where it takes primarily sunflower seeds and nyjer. To encourage goldfinches into your yard, plant native thistles and other composite plants, as well as native milkweed.  Almost any kind of birdfeeder may attract American Goldfinches, including hopper, platform, and hanging birdfeeders, and these birds don’t mind feeders that sway in the wind.  You’ll also find American Goldfinches are happy to feed on the ground below feeders, eating spilled seeds.   

**This familiar and common species is often called “Wild Canary”.  Since the bird’s main source of food is seeds, nesting does not begin until midsummer or late summer, when weed seeds are available.  Thus goldfinches remain in flocks until well past the time when other species have formed pairs and are nesting.  Because they nest so late, only a single brood is raised each season.  In the winter they gather in large flocks, often with other finches such as redpolss and Pine Siskins.**

DESCRIPTION:  4.5-5 inches, they are smaller than a sparrow.  Breeding male bright yellow with white rump.  Black forehead, white edges on black wings and tail, and yellow at bend of the wing. Female and winter males duller and grayer, with black wings, tail and white wings bar.  They travel in flocks with undulating flights.

VOICE:  Bright “per-chick-o-ree” also rendered as “potato-chips”, delivered in flight and coinciding with each undulation.

HABITAT:  Brushy thickets, weedy grasslands and nearby trees

NESTING:  4 or 5 pale blue eggs in a well-made cup of grass, bark strips, and plant down placed in the upright fork of a small sapling or shrub.

RANGE:  Breeds from southern British Columbia east to Newfoundland, and south to California, Utah, southern Colorado, central Oklahoma, Arkansas and Carolinas.  Winters in much of the United States

SOME COOL FACTS

American Goldfinches are unusual among goldfinches in molting their body feathers twice a year, once in late winter and again in late summer. The brightening yellow of male goldfinches each spring is one welcome mark of approaching warm months.

American Goldfinches breed later than most North American birds. They wait to nest until June or July when milkweed, thistle, and other plants have produced their fibrous seeds, which goldfinches incorporate into their nests and also feed their young.

Goldfinches are among the strictest vegetarians in the bird world, selecting an entirely vegetable diet and only inadvertently swallowing an occasional insect.

When Brown-headed Cowbirds lay eggs in an American Goldfinch nest, the cowbird egg may hatch but the nestling seldom survives longer than three days. The cowbird chick simply can’t survive on the all-seed diet that goldfinches feed their young.

Goldfinches move south in winter following a pattern that seems to coincide with regions where the minimum January temperature is no colder than 0 degrees Fahrenheit on average.

Paired-up goldfinches make virtually identical flight calls; goldfinches may be able to distinguish members of various pairs by these calls.

The oldest known American Goldfinch was 10 years 9 months old when it was recaptured and rereleased during a banding operation in Maryland.

Enjoy Your Open Space

Charlie Fineran

Director Open Space

Allamuchy Township Environmental Commission – Chairman   

Allamuchy Historical Society –  President