Mindblowing Planet Earth: American Goldfinch (Spinus tristis)

American Goldfinch Identification

The American Goldfinch (Carduelis tristis) is a favorite visitor of many backyard birdwatchers. The American Goldfinch is about five inches in length tail tip to bill tip. The American Goldfinch is a bird of edge and brush, preferring naturally open swamp and marsh vegetation, man-made clearing, road edges, orchards, and pasture forest, fringes and open uplands with their scattered shrubs and saplings.

The American Goldfinch is a common migrant resident in various states of United States, however variable in numbers from season to season. The American goldfinch is the state bird of “Iowa” and “New Jersey”, where it is known as "Eastern Goldfinch", and in Washington, it is called the "Willow Goldfinch". The bird is often victim to brood parasites, mainly brown-headed cowbirds. The lifespan of the American Goldfinch is around three to six years in the wild. So far, the oldest known American goldfinch was 10 years and 5 months old.

American Goldfinch Male and Female

The male bird has bright yellow body feathers with black wing and tail feathers are having black forehead patch. Also, a white rump patch and two white wings bars are also present. Hence, the female American Goldfinch has olive yellow body feathers with black wing feathers and two white wings bars. This is a diurnal bird, meaning it's most agile during the day.

American Goldfinch Habitats

It breeds in blue oak savannahs, digger pine-oak wood-lands, and particularly in low elevation riparian groves. In late summer and fall, some upslope movement, especially in chaparral type and along riparian corridors. The most amazing part of American goldfinch is displaying sexual dimorphism in its coloration.

The male bird is a vibrant yellow in the summer and an olive color during the winter. Thus, the female bird is a dull yellow-brown shade which brightens only slightly during the summer. The American Goldfinch is one of the most common and widespread birds, but it can seem to disappear during the winter.

During the fall, the bright yellow males molt into the same muted brown as the females and juveniles. While these “brown-finches” will remain all winter, casual observers don’t notice them, searching instead for the summer-attired male. As goldfinches are gregarious during all parts of the year, even feeding together during the breeding season, it’s easiest to find the flock.

The American Goldfinch truly deserves its name. It can be found in all the 48 contiguous states during some portion of the year. The population retreats from the southern third of Canada and expands into the southern U.S. and Mexico during the winter. The bird is also well-known for its susceptibility to mycoplasmal conjunctivitis, that has infected and killed many House Finches.

American Goldfinch Song

Normally male bird sings a long and different series of twitters and musical warbles lasted for several seconds long. The phrases and notes inconstant and repeated in a seemingly random order. The finch perpetually to learn song patterns throughout life.

American Goldfinch Sound

The bird most common call is its contact call, repeatedly given tsee-tsi-tsi-tsit in flight. It sounds just like saying po-ta-to-chip with a very even cadence, but sometimes give severe threat calls when in feeding flocks or at the nest. The male bird makes a tee-yee courtship call upon landing near a female followed by a burst of song.

Females brooding nestlings make a rapid sequence of high notes when they hear their mate approaching with food. Further, at nest both make a loud defense call, two-parted bay-bee when they feel threatened. The most common predators are snakes, squirrels, weasels, cats, hawks, and blue jays, normally destroy eggs or kill young, also pose a threat to both young and adults.

American Goldfinch Courtship Behavior.

In contrast to most songbirds the American Goldfinch may delay establishing territory up to two months following pair formation in May and June. Two distinctive courtship behavior of the American Goldfinch are the extended, canarylike warbling given by the male from prominent perches and the prolonged pursuit of a single female by several males.

American Goldfinch Breeding

Breeding Biology of American Goldfinch is unusual. Unlike more than 95% of other terrestrial birds, the goldfinch feeds its nestlings only seeds. Brown-headed Cowbird chicks, which thrive in the nests of insect-eating warblers, rarely survive past three days and never fledge from goldfinch nests. The goldfinch is also one of the latest nesting songbirds. The female bird chooses to mate with males that exhibit the brightest colors, and therefore, may obtain the most skilled foragers in doing so.

American Goldfinch Nest

The birds may pair up during the winter flock, but most nesting occurs July through September. Nests are placed in open areas with shrubs, fibrous matter from the bark of vines and the stems of milkweed that the female gathers and form into a supporting basket. Such as residential areas and old fields. The basket is cradled in the crotch of 3 to 4 upright slender branches of a tree shrub or herbaceous plant.

Females choose their mates based on the brightness of their plumage, using that as a signal of their overall health. First-time nesters raise a single brood; experienced females leave their first brood with their mate and attempt a second nest with a new male. Moreover, nest height above the ground varies according to the chosen habitats.

Whereas nest building in July may average 13 days, it requires less than half this time by late August. Incubation by the female bird of the 4 to 6 smooth shelled pale bullish, white eggs lasts from 12 to 14 days. During incubation the male is most attentive feeding the begging female a regurgitated supply of while milky seed cereal.

By the 8^th day after hatchling the nestlings are very active calling loudly and standing upright in anticipation of the parents’ arrivals. At this time juvenile begin defecating on the nest edge, where their excreta may cling and harden. Earlier the parents removed the fecal sacs.

American Goldfinch Population

American Goldfinch breeding populations have remained stable nationally and increased. Winter populations are also widespread and apparently stable with goldfinches consistently among the “top five” Winter Feeder Survey birds in both total numbers and percent of feeders visited.

Fewer breeding attempts were confirmed in part due to the late nesting season (many observers had turned in their records before young goldfinches left the nest). Furthermore, less emphasis was placed on “confirming” a species needs European settlement was beneficial for the American Goldfinch, increasing both edge habitat for nesting and “weedy” food sources. In the winter these finches make a group of up 40 or 50 birds, occasionally more. The flock of Goldfinches is called a real “charm”.

What Do American Goldfinch Eat?

The bird eats mainly Thistle or Nyjer seeds of trees, maple sap, alder & birch, forbs, especially of composites; sunflower seeds, bark of young twigs, and, some insects. Generally, feeds in flocks, picking and gleaning food from flower heads and foliage of forbs, shrubs, and trees. A peculiar behavior of goldfinches is that they feed upside-down to obtain seeds from thistles, and sunflowers.

The American Goldfinch is an agile species and may also be one reason this species will readily come to birdfeeders whether they must feed right-side up or upside-down. Though the Goldfinch will eat at both types of feeders, results show that feeding right-side up increases the number of feeding attempts and the amount of seed consumed by gold-finches.

The farm management plan that sets aside land for grassland-nesting species, has also benefitted goldfinches. While forest succession and the move towards “clean” farming both work to decrease appropriate habitat and food availability, this can be easily countered by thoughtful landscaping of urban and suburban yards.

Natural landscapes should be allowed to experience disturbances that produce the desired habitat. The American Goldfinch is a species that fits easily into the human-dominated landscape. The only subspecies of the American Goldfinch known from southern California is the one breeding locally, the Willow Goldfinch.

Backyard birders are not always able to watch the goldfinch because the larger House Finch usually crowds the goldfinch off the perches of conventional feeders. Some backyard birders do not like this competition and would like to have a feeder that can only be used by the goldfinch.

Trees Attract American Goldfinches

The Goldfinches attract with colorful flowers such as asters, Bolivian sunflower, , daisies, cosmos, marigolds, Mexican sunflower, poppies, purple coneflowers and zinnias. The seed heads of above plants are enjoyed by birds throughout their growing seasons. A special blooming favorite is the black oil sunflower.

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