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American goldfinch
Bird of the month Identify goldfinches by sight and sound
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March is when
I start watching for the male American goldfinches, Carduelis tristis,
at my feeder to begin their molt into breeding plumage. While other
members of the Carduelis genus go through only one molt in the fall,
these guys do it again in late winter, and it is one of my favorite bird
shows to watch. Each day, as
the regular visitors to my feeder arrive, each one has a little more
sunshine yellow and intense black mottling. It is almost as if Mother
Nature is splattering paint on them each night. The color
splotches grow and connect and pretty soon the male is transformed from
a nondescript bird into a strutting yellow and black “chick-magnet”
just in time for the breeding season. Smaller than a sparrow (4
1/2-5"), he has a white rump, black forehead, white edges on black
wings and tail, and yellow at bend of wing. The female plumage is the
same year-round, the better to camouflage her while on the nest. Although
goldfinches are pretty easy to identify by sight, their songs and flight
pattern are clues too. They have a characteristic bouncing flight
pattern and will often give a "tsee-tsi-tsi-tsit" or
"per-chic-o-ree" call in flight. The song is a long series of
warbling and chirpy notes that has a trademark “whiney” component to
it. Preferred
breeding habitat includes weedy fields, roadsides, orchards, and
gardens. Breeding is late for this species. In Nest-building
duties fall primarily on the female, although the male will occasionally
bring her some building materials. The nest is a tightly woven cup lined
with thistle down and often bound with spider silk, usually in a tree
anywhere between 2 and 30 feet from the ground.
After she constructs the nest, the female spends 95 percent of
her time incubating two to seven eggs, while the male forages and brings
her food. The eggs hatch in 12-14 days and the babies leave the nest
about 2 weeks later. The American
goldfinch is mostly monogamous, but sometimes a female will switch mates
after producing a first brood. The male is left to take care of the
fledglings while the female goes off to start another brood with a
different male. I guess that “chick-magnet” plumage is pretty
compelling to the females! You can enjoy
the acrobatic foraging behavior of these guys if you plant some large
sunflowers in your garden. It is really fun to watch them hanging upside
down on a nodding sunflower head, working to extract the prized seeds. |
