American Goldfinch Female

I told you yesterday about the American Goldfinch. There was one thing missing from my story though. I didn't really give you any pictures of the female. We usually only think of human females as being unjustly thought of as second to the males. But what about birds?

It seems as if male birds get most of the attention. For example, male peacocks with their big beautiful tail feathers get far more attention than the females, simply because the female's tail feathers aren't as noticeable. A male downy woodpecker has a fancy bright red cap, but the female has none.

Now we have the American Goldfinch. What are the differences? The male has a dashing black Zorro mask on its head. The female has no mask, so her face is open for all to see. It's as yellow as the rest of her. The color of the female is also a bit duller, more of an olive color. She also lacks yellow shoulder bars that the male has.

Okay, enough of this! There is one thing the female has that the male lacks. She was kind enough to give me my first good pictures of a goldfinch. The pictures you see here are actually much older than the ones I showed you yesterday. I waited with these so I could give you the information about these American Goldfinches in the proper way.

I got these pictures after chasing a male goldfinch from the lake to the meadow in this nature park. I told you that story a little while ago, and I mentioned then that it was unfinished. I did get some decent pictures, but they weren't quite what I wanted. It's what happened after I lost him that made me really happy.

The male goldfinch flew to an old fallen tree, but I still couldn't get a clear shot. I thought I was going to go away with nothing again, but patiently sitting there on a high branch was another bird. It looked different than the first one. As you may have guessed, it was this female American Goldfinch.

She stayed perched on that branch the whole time, letting me take all the pictures of her that I wanted. Some might just obnoxiously say it was female vanity for the camera, but I say it was female kindness that enabled her to show me a little bit of mercy. I didn't know it was a female at the time; I only knew it was the little yellow bird I always wanted.

American Goldfinch

I have a triumphant new set of pictures for you! Some of you may remember awhile ago when I came upon a little yellow bird at the back of one of my nature parks. I found out a short time later that the bird was an American Goldfinch. I was amazed to see a bird in my area that had that bright yellow color. But I didn't think I'd ever see any more very soon.

Then about a month later I saw even more of them. I chased them through that same back area of the park until I found one waiting on a tree. I quickly got several pictures until it flew away. There was actually more to that story than I told you back then. I'll finish it for you very soon. It really does have an exciting ending.

Today though I have my ultimate prize! At the very front of the same park, when I thought my adventures for the day were over, I got my best pictures ever of an American Goldfinch! I'm obviously going to share some of those with you now, but I also have some interesting information about these birds for you! I'm excited! You're excited! It's like a little yellow party!

The American Goldfinch is a small bird with a bright yellow body, with a black cap that covers the top of its head down to its eyes. It also has black wings streaked with white and a black tail. The underside of its tail is white. This bird can be found throughout most of the United states all year long.

It can also be found in the southern part of Canada, but usually only in the summer. Similarly it can be found to the south of the United States, but it will fly north in the summer. The bright yellow color of this bird is only seen in breeding season. It is a much duller color in non-breeding season. This is a very dull light brown or gray, and with a much less evident black cap. It regains the bright yellow after a complete molt of its feathers.

The best place to see these birds is a meadow atop tall flowers and other tall plants. They love eating the seeds from these plants right there on top of the plant. They will eat from sunflower seeds and thistle from a feeder. I've also seen them in other areas with tall flowers.

The nesting season of these monogamous birds is usually from July to August. They build a nest of a neatly formed bowl of grass, strips of bark, and other soft plant material in a small shrub or sapling. The female lays four to six pale blue to white eggs. The female exclusively does the work of incubation, which usually takes between ten to twelve days. The male brings food to her while she sits on the eggs.

My pictures here show their feeding behavior in action. When I took these pictures the weeds had grown very tall in the parking lot of the nature park, where I found these birds. The weeds have been cut down since I took the pictures, so I won't be getting an more of these this year.

The good news is that I still see these birds in other areas of the park, and I also have seen them roaming around flower gardens closer to home. So these birds are still doing very well around here. I also have a few plans to be able to get better bird pictures in the future, and I hope I can do it before winter hits.

That's it for this post about the American Goldfinch. I still have more to say about these birds in the future, so stay tuned. And I'll of course be back tomorrow with more exciting stories from The Everyday Adventurer!