Bird of the Month: American Goldfinch
Written by Andy McCormick
Andy McCormick, Volunteer and Former Board President of Eastside Audubon
The bright yellow and black breeding plumage of the male American Goldfinch makes it easy for anyone to identify this state bird of Washington.
The American Goldfinch is a common songbird of brushy fields and roadsides across North America. Its plumage is sexually and seasonally dimorphic with four possible plumage changes between male and female, and winter and summer. The breeding male is unmistakable with its bright lemon-yellow body and contrasting jet-black fore-cap and wings. The breeding female has a yellow chest and belly with olive on the head and back. The bills of both male and female turn orange during the breeding season.
The plumage of both sexes becomes more muted in winter. The male retains its black wings but yellow is restricted to its throat and it back molts to cinnamon-brown color. The female turns mostly gray in fall. Juvenile goldfinch plumage is somewhere between that of the adults and more closely resembles the female with blackish wings and tail, and olive back. Photos, videos, and vocalizations of the American Goldfinch can be found at the Macaulay Library.
SEEDEATING SPECIALIST
American Goldfinch
Scientific Name: Spinus tristis
Length: 5”
Wingspan: 9”
Weight: 0.46 oz (13 g)
AOU Alpha Code: AMGO
The diet of the American Goldfinch is almost exclusively comprised of seeds from grasses, weeds, and small seeds of trees such as elm, birch, and alder (Kaufman). These finches forage in fields of grasses, flowers, and thistles hanging acrobatically from plants twisting their body into positions from which they can feed on the seed head. Even young American Goldfinches can thrive on seeds, but in the early stage of life, the meal comes in the form of pre-digested matter regurgitated from one of the parents.
The American Goldfinch is in the genus Spinus, a name given by Aristophanes in Ancient Greece for a bird that can no longer be identified (Jobling). The specific epithet tristis, is from the Latin for sad in reference to its lamenting dear-me call (Bell and Kennedy). Its song is a bubbly mixture of phrases often ending with a downward slur. This goldfinch is better known for its flight call which older birders will remember being phonetically rendered as “per-chik-o-ree,” but today the call is more often likened to “po-ta-to-chip,” most often given during its undulating flight. Pete Dunne writes that the American Goldfinch can be considered the “Potato Chip bird that flies with a dip” (Dunne).
LATE SUMMER NESTER
The American Goldfinch nests later in the season than most songbirds settling down after the summer solstice, perhaps coinciding with the timing of the maturation of thistle and other seed crops. The female builds a solid, compact cup nest of plant fibers and down also from thistles. The nest is often so tightly structured that it will hold water (Kaufman). Usually, 4-6 pale bluish-white eggs are deposited and incubated by the female for about two weeks. Both parents provide feedings of regurgitated seeds. As the nestlings grow, the role of the female diminishes. and the male feeds them until fledging within another two weeks (McGraw and Middleton).
The American Goldfinch is a wide-spread finch breeding from southern British Columbia to Newfoundland and south to Southern California and across the central states to the southeastern corner of the U. S. The more northern population draws southward in winter as far as the northeastern coast of Mexico. In addition, there is a resident population in California.
A NOTE ON FINCH TAXONOMY
Following extensive mitochondrial DNA studies of bird families, the American Ornithological Society (AOS) has been working toward greater uniformity in bird taxonomy with its worldwide partners and aims to limit each genus to birds within a single clade (a group of species with the same ancestor). To this end, the AOS announced in the Fiftieth Supplement to the Check-List of North American Birds (2009) that it upgraded the subgenus Spinus to full species status within the very large family Fringillidae, where finches, euphonias, Hawaiian finches, rosy-finches, crossbills, seedeaters, canaries, and many similar birds are organized. Fringillidae may continue to change based on new results from ongoing studies, but today it includes 229 species of birds organized into 49 genera (the plural for genus) (Wikipedia). The genus Spinus originally named by Linnaeus in 1758, now includes 20 species of birds: 17 siskins including Pine Siskin, and the three North American goldfinches (American, lesser, and Lawrence’s).
Photo credit: Mick Thompson
References available upon request from amccormick@eastsideaudubon.org
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