American Goldfinches

Chances are good that the bright flash of yellow you see in your back yard is a male American Goldfinch. This gregarious 5" bird can be seen all across America, along roadsides, in open woods and fields, farm and suburban yards.

Goldfinches
by Judith Hutchinson

The golden color is most prominent in the males in the spring and summer during breeding season while the females are a dull olive-green with yellowish under parts. In winter the male finch looks much like the the summer female with just a touch of yellow on the throat.  Both genders have black wings with white bars and short forked black tails with a white rump and white coverts..  The male sports a black forehead. Their short conical bills are typical of seed-eating birds.

Nesting season for Goldfinches is later than most other songbirds, coinciding with the availability of thistle weed seed.  A nest is woven of grasses and the fiber from
Cattails, or thistle down and caterpillar webbing.  Four to six pale blue eggs will hatch in 12-14 days.  The male feeds the female during incubation and helps feed the young a diet of small seeds and insects.  Thistle seed is a major food but they also like the seeds of dandelions, coneflower, coreopsis, marigold, lettuce and cosmos.

To attract these popular birds into your landscape, offer black oil sunflower, hulled sunflower pieces and nyjer seed.  Goldfinches will feed from any type of feeder and since they love to bathe, a water feature or bird bath is an additional way to attract them.