8/10/2023 0 Comments Small black and yellow songbirdNesting begins later in the season, compared to other migratory songbirds, generally peaking during July and August.īut, in Kentucky, the spread of the musk thistle, an early-maturing exotic weed that provides food and nesting material, may be responsible for some earlier nesting activity.īoth parents feed the nestlings. Finches also relish millet seed and black oil sunflowers. Hang out a specialized feeder filled with nyjer seed, sometimes referred to niger thistle seed, and they will come in flocks. Want to bring the American Goldfinch to your backyard? The young are fed regurgitated matter mostly made up of seeds. ![]() The seeds they prefer are from flowers in the sunflower or aster family, but they also will eat weed and grass seeds, and the small seeds of some tree species.ĭuring summer nesting they may eat high-protein insects to a limited extent. The American Goldfinch is primarily a seed eater, foraging actively in weeds, shrubs, and trees, often climbing about acrobatically. The bird’s preferred habitat is patches of roadside thistles and weeds, overgrown fields, the edges of forests or woodlots, orchards, and rural suburban yards backing up to brushy farmlands. Want to bring the American Goldfinch to your backyard? Hang out a specialized feeder filled with nyjer seed, sometimes referred to niger thistle seed, and they will come in flocks. Throughout most of the Lower 48 states, from Washington state to Maine, south to North Carolina, and west to northern California, the American Goldfinch is present year-round.īirds that nest in Canada, winter southward, with some stopping over in Kentucky, but heading back northward by early May. The American Goldfinch nests as far north as central Canada, and winters as far south as southern Mexico. The song of the American Goldfinch is a series of musical warbles and twitters. The autumn plumage is almost identical in both sexes, but the male has yellow shoulder patches. The female is mostly brown, lighter on the underside with a yellow bib.Īfter the autumn molt, the bright summer feathers are replaced by duller plumage, becoming buff below and olive-brown above, with a pale yellow face and bib. Once the spring molt is complete, the body of the male is a brilliant lemon yellow, with a jet black cap and white rump that is visible during flight. It sheds and re-grows most of its feathers before the onset of cold weather, then sheds and re-grows all its feathers, excepts for its wings and tail, in the spring. The American Goldfinch undergoes two molts a year. The female is mostly brown, lighter on the underside with a yellow bib. Its conical beak - pink for most of the year, but bright orange during the spring - aids in the extraction of the tiniest of seeds from thistles and sunflowers, and other plants that produce seed heads. The American goldfinch is a small bird, about five inches tall, with a wingspan of about eight inches. What makes this species unique among Kentucky’s breeding birds is its late nesting, usually not beginning until late July.īut the beautiful coloration of the male, which changes with the seasons, and their musical vocalizations associated with courtship and nesting, are probably what enamors us to this migratory songbird. ![]() ![]() In winter, they congregate in flocks, and visit feeders in suburban and rural backyards. In summer they disperse into semi-open and open habitats, dominated by early successional vegetation. The American Goldfinch, Spinus tristis, a member of the Finch Family, Fringillidae, is found throughout Kentucky, year-round, but abundance varies somewhat seasonally.
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