A Spring American Goldfinch

What we have here is one of my favorite birds. It 's an American Goldfinch! The first time I ever saw one of these little yellow birds was about two years ago. At the time, I didn't know there were any birds this colorful in the United States. I remember being fascinated by that flash of yellow I saw. Since then I've seen several of them.

After all of my recent bird closeups, you may be wondering why these pictures are not so close. Well, that's because this little bird was actually very far away. I'm still not sure how I saw it from where I was. At the beginning of the hiking trail are a lot of huge trees that conceal the inner forest from the parking lot. This bird was at the top of one of those that were not very close to the trail.

I think it was only the fact that this little bird just couldn't seem to keep still that I saw him at all. He kept hopping from branch to branch and kept turning his head. That black mask moving around helped a lot. I think I was mostly just lucky that he never flew very far away.

Here is where he flew down a little lower to another branch. At first I thought I lost him, but his animated nature helped me find him pretty quickly. The main problem was that the leaves around him were also moving a little bit. Up that high the wind was blowing them around pretty good. Some of those leaves looked the same color as the bird from where I was.

Look at he blurry group of leaves hanging down at the top right above. I pointed the camera at them more than once, thinking they were the goldfinch I was after. I'm glad the camera can zoom in and out pretty fast. It sometimes helps to pull back on the zoom a little bit, so you can see more of the area around the bird. These pictures were taken at the maximum zoom though.

You may have noticed that I said at the beginning of the post that this was a male. Only the male American goldfinch has that black bandit mask. The females are similar in color, but a little less brilliantly yellow, and without the mask. If you'd like to see more of these birds, just do a search here on my blog for American Goldfinch. I've had many adventures with them.

Nature Center Magazine today, Copas is exploring the state of Colorado, one of the most well-known states for nature lovers. This place is known for its high mountains and natural beauty. If you want to know a little more, go check out the article.