American goldfinches are nature's ornaments for Houston holidays© Kathy Adams Clark, Kathy Adams Clark/KAC Productions
American goldfinches spend winters across Texas. They breed in Canada and across parts of the mid-continential U.S.
American goldfinches have been in our yard since Thanksgiving. They perch in trees and on birdfeeders like Christmas ornaments and utter tinkling sounds like the tones of decorative baubles.
Yet this time of year, their bodies lack that bright golden hue.
Like all songbirds, they molt all their body and wing feathers in early autumn and acquire a new coat of feathers called winter plumage. For most songbirds, the autumn coat must last until the next autumn.
But American goldfinches are among a few songbirds, including summer tanagers, that undergo a second molt of body feathers, excluding wing feathers, during spring. Fortunately, goldfinches stay here from April to May when they begin the second body molt into sunshiny yellow. Although the wings don’t molt, they do become ebony-black.
Goldfinches arrive here for the winter from breeding grounds in southern Canada and across the mid-continental U.S., where the wild seed crop becomes scarce due to snow and ice. But here, the birds will find an ample winter food supply of grass seeds and tree seeds in forested parks, wildlife refuges and especially seeds in backyard birdfeeders.
We welcome them in our yard. Their feet cling to the perches attached to the birdfeeder portals as they pluck out seeds with their tiny conical beaks and remain at the portals while chomping down seeds. If a hawk flies overhead, the birds go into a freeze response, sitting motionless at the feeder until the hawk goes away. But if a feral cat enters the yard, the birds erupt into the air toward the safety of trees.
We’ve seen the joyous birds on breeding grounds in the grasslands of Canada’s Maritime Provinces singing a rhythmic melody that sounds like per-chic-o-ree or po-ta-to-chip. The songs ring out in a cadence that rises and falls in sync with their undulating flight as if they have created the choreography for their flight song.
It’s unusual to hear their flight song this time of year, although we sometimes hear it as the birds begin their springtime journey north. And remember, that’s also when we’ll notice the birds acquiring their canary yellow plumage.
Goldfinches on northern breeding grounds often congregate in fields of sunflowers, plucking seeds from the flower heads. Beta-carotene in the seeds gives the birds their brilliant yellow bodies.
American goldfinches
- The scientific name for goldfinches is Carduelis tristis — Carduelis meaning thistle and tristis meaning sad, which refers to the seemingly rueful call notes of goldfinches.
- American goldfinches are small, wren-sized birds with deeply notched tails.
- They typically sit on a birdfeeder perch for five to 20 minutes at a time, munching seeds.
- Feed goldfinches shelled sunflower seeds with no waste hulls to litter the ground, nor do the seeds become rancid. Black oil sunflower seeds may have some waste hulls.
- Thistle seeds often attract goldfinches. Store the seeds in a cool, dry place to prevent them from becoming rancid and monitor thistle feeders to ensure the seeds aren’t moldy.
Gary Clark |
