Houston birders welcome American goldfinches visiting for winter
Story by Gary Clark
 
Until recently, we'd wondered when American goldfinches would arrive in our yard. But after the recent freeze, we've seen 20 to 30 goldfinches on our birdfeeders each morning.
The birds migrate from breeding grounds in Canada and across parts of the mid-continental U.S. They arrive in North Texas during September but often delay their journey to our part of the state until November.
Whether in Dallas or Houston, the birds feast on wild seeds in nearby forests, fields, parks, and wildlife refuges until a hard freeze depletes the wild seed crop. And that's what happened in mid-January.
Freezing weather hit the Houston region with brutal force. We've seen worse freezes. But if our garden of frozen shrimp plants, salvia and hamelia shows what the icy weather did, then think what it did to the wild seed crop that had been nourishing goldfinches.
That's why the birds finally descended upon our birdfeeders filled with shelled sunflower seeds, plus another feeder packed with thistle seeds. We know their food preferences because we've seen the birds on breeding grounds in places like Nova Scotia, where flocks would cover a field of sunflowers or Canadian thistle to devour the seeds.
American goldfinches eat tree and plant seeds. The agile birds pluck seeds while perching atop or on the sides of sunflowers and hang upside down on thistle plants to snatch their seeds.
But goldfinches have no golden hues when they arrive here during winter. Instead, they have a non-breeding coat of dull, olive-brown plumage with dismal tints of yellow plus a touch of black on the forehead. Their wings and tails are black as coal.
As spring progresses, the birds gradually molt into yellow breeding plumage that shines like sunlit gold. Because the birds don't begin migrating north until late spring, we often see them in the blazing yellow plumage.
But their wings and tails remain black, which means the birds are among a few others, such as painted buntings and summer tanagers, that undergo a partial feather molt in spring. All songbirds undergo a complete feather molt in autumn.
American goldfinches wander around local backyard feeders with no affinity for one location over another. That means the flock of birds arriving at our birdfeeders one day may not be the same flock arriving the next day.
American goldfinches spend winters across Texas
- Their golden color derives from carotenoids in a diet of seeds.
- They devour shelled sunflower seeds in local birdfeeders as well as thistle seed in thistle seed feeders.
- They store thistle seeds in a cool, dry place lest it become rancid.
- American goldfinches typically perch at a birdfeeder for 5 – 20 minutes at a time while munching seed, which may increase their vulnerability to hawks.
- Lesser goldfinches reside year around in the Hill Country but are smaller than American goldfinches and have black backs.
- Goldfinches are in the Fringillidae family, which includes domesticated caged canaries with lineage from wild populations in Macaronesia.
Houston birders welcome American goldfinches visiting for winter (msn.com) |
