American Goldfinch
American Goldfinch Cerduelis tristis
Sound (97 KB)
DESCRIPTION:
Size:
5 inches (13 cm)
Abundance:
• Common
Quick Identification:
• Male: Bright yellow with black cap
• Black wings with white wing bars
• White rump and undertail coverts
Identification Tips:
• Small, seed-eating bird
• Short, conical bill
• Short, forked tail
Adult male breeding:
• Plumage held in Spring and Summer
• Black forehead
• Yellow head, back, breast and belly
• Black wings and tail
• White wing bars and tertial edges
• White rump and undertail coverts
• Pale bill and legs
Adult female breeding:
• Greenish upperparts
• Yellow underparts
• Pale bill and legs
Nonbreeding:
• Plumage held in Fall and Winter
• Yellow face
• Brownish-olive upperparts
• Whitish underparts
• Blackish wings with pale wing bars
HABITAT:
Woodland edges, fields, thickets, orchards, roadsides, riparian areas with willows,
feeders. Common and widespread. Often seen eating thistle seed.
NESTING & FEEDING:
BREEDING: Weedy and cultivated fields, open deciduous and riparian woodland. Occasionally
2 broods. Mating system is monogamous.
DISPLAYS: Male song-flight on level (rather than typical undulating) flight, rapidly
flapping wings.
NEST: In branch fork, 1 to 30 feet above ground, often woven so tightly that nest holds
water; of forbs, other pliable vegetation, lined with plant down. Caterpillar webbing and
spider silk often used to bind outer rim. Male may collect some nest material and give to
female. Female builds nest.
EGGS: 4-6 Pale blue or bluish-white, unmarked. 0.6" (16 mm).
CHICK DEVELOPMENT: Female incubates. Incubation takes 10-12 days. Development is altricial
(immobile, downless, eyes closed, fed). Young leave the nest after 11-17 days. Both sexes
tend young.
DIET: Seeds, including seeds of deciduous trees, forbs (especially composites), grass,
floral buds, berries. Young fed regurgitant of milky seed pulp; few insects.
CONSERVATION: Winters s to n Mexico (and along coast to Veracruz). Common cowbird host.
Declined in n e as House Sparrows increased.
NOTES: Commonly change mates between years; females show nest-site tenacity. Nests usually
near water. Male feeds female on nest; female may call to male to be fed, begs when he
appears with food. Females may sit on eggs 95% of the time! Hatching asynchronous,
increasingly so as season progresses. Late nester except in California and s w; older
birds nest earlier than younger birds. Winter flocks up to 300 common, often with siskins,
redpolls.
WORLD RANGE:
Carduelis tristis AMERICAN GOLDFINCH. Riparian woodland, fields, open woodland, forest
edge, farmland. S British Columbia, nc Alberta, c Saskatchewan and wc,s Manitoba e across
s Canada to Nova Scotia and sw Newfoundland. and s to s Calif., n Baja Calif., e
Washington, e Oregon, c Nevada, c Utah, s Colorado, ne Arizona, nw New Mexico, c Oklahoma,
extreme ne Texas, n Louisiana, c portions of Gulf States, c Georgia and S. Carolina.
Winters from s Canada s to nw and ne Mexico and s Florida.
