Male Goldfinch

Photo © 2005 by Jim Jung and licensors. All rights reserved

Goldfinches

Goldfinches - those strikingly colored gold and black birds - begin building their nests on the margins of old, overgrown fields in the early summer. These seed and occasional insect eaters are common permanent residents of our area. And while individuals can be found year round there is evidence that these birds migrate - that the birds we see in winter are not the same ones breeding here during our summers.

Female Goldfinch

Photo © 2005 by Jim Jung and licensors. All rights reserved

Nesting

Once the nest is complete the much more sensibly colored female moves in and lays two or three small, cream-colored eggs which hatch a week to ten days later. The couple takes turns feeding their increasingly hungry brood until the young are able to follow their parents and learn to find seeds on their own.

Goldfinch young

The young remain with their parents in small, loose flocks throughout the winter months foraging for seeds. These brilliant yellow and black finches will spend the winter with their parents gleaning grain from nearby fields, plucking seeds from ripe seedheads and visiting backyard feeders when snow cuts off their normal supply of food. Then, the following spring, completely schooled in the Ways of the Goldfinch they head out into the world on their own and start the cycle over.

Winter plumage

As permanent residents of this area our local Goldfinches don't migrate. But as winter and its snow close in on the country north of us increasing numbers of northern birds will be heading south to join their relations here in the warmer southern lands. On average these winter migrants begin arriving in our area around the middle of September. After hanging around all winter they leave for their northern homes - usually by mid April.

Winter Goldfinches differ from their summer form by becoming drab and faded. Many, if not most, turn a shade of lime green, so that even the usually colorful males resemble the females. Goldfinches aren't terribly conspicuous in the winter, but we do have them here year-round. This change in color seems to be controlled more by the restricted diet of winter than anything.

Late winter seems like a really bad time to begin losing one's insulating feathers but that's what Goldfinches do. And since it seems to work for them - there being no shortage of Goldfinches - more power to them.

Spring

So keep your eyes open and if you see a small, greenish bird with a somewhat scruffy, unkempt appearance munching on last year's seeds in a fallow field remember that beauty is only skin deep. Come spring with its more varied diet - and after their annual molt - the Goldfinches will once again be resplendent in their golden and black plumage... just in time for the coming breeding season.

Offsite Link:

• Chipper Woods Bird Observatory, Indianapolis, In.

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