American goldfinch

“ In this connection I would say that while few of our native birds change the color of their plumage as an adaptation to the seasons, our pretty thistle bird, or American goldfinch, undergoes a radical change. In summer he has a bright yellow body with black markings and a black head, while in winter his plumage is all pale brown or sparrow-color, and we often fail to recognize in our somber winter resident the brilliant goldfinch of our summer. ”

“ Range North America generally, wintering mostly south of the northern boundary of the United States. The American Goldfinch, known under many titles, is as familiar as the Robin, Catbird, and Wren, but its beauty and winning ways always seem new and interesting. ”

“ In the early spring we hear a concert of sweet voices coming from a flock of songsters in the summit of the elm, their favorite tree. Their period of love-making is long, as all their brothers and sisters of the same order have with very few exceptions finished their family duties before the American goldfinch (Astragalinus tristis) looks about and selects for his nest the fork of a bush or tree handy to some thistly field. Here the family of [Pg 279] three to six young is reared. From his fondness for thistle seeds he gets his common name, “thistle-bird.” ”

“ One can now find birds entirely different from any that he has heretofore seen, and at the same time learn several facts of interest concerning birds with which he considers himself well acquainted; as, for instance, the American goldfinch, which is supposed to migrate in the fall, will be found in the swampy woods in large flocks, but with plumage so changed that they will probably not be recognized, being of a somber brown color, and sexes undistinguishable. ”

“ In winter the seeds of the buttonwood supply their chief subsistence.
The common Goldfinch was seen in abundance by Mr. Ridgway only in the vicinity of Sacramento City, associated with the Carpodacus frontalis, and often nesting in the same tree. In the interior this species was rarely seen, and only one specimen was secured in the Truckee Valley in May, and not noticed afterwards. It was, however, found breeding in the Uintah [Pg 473] Mountains, where its nest and eggs were obtained. ”

“ Whatever doubt may exist as to the services rendered to man by the Sparrow and Chaffinch, about the Goldfinch there can be no difference of opinion. The farmer has no better friend, and yet an abundance of Goldfinches on an estate is anything but a welcome sight; for it denotes abundance of its favourite food, the seeds of thistles. Where these weeds flourish, there, for the most part, Goldfinches are to be met with in considerable numbers. ”

“ Goldfinches may be taught to perform many amusing tricks, to draw up water for themselves by a small thimble-sized bucket, or to raise the lid of a small box to obtain the seed within. A goldfinch has been trained to appear dead; it could be held up by the tail or claw without exhibiting any signs of life, or to stand on its head with its claws in the air, or to imitate a Dutch milk-maid going to market with pails on its shoulders, or to appear as a soldier, keeping guard as sentinel. ”

“ At your approach, the busy company rises on the wing, and with peculiar, wavy flight rise and fall through the air, marking each undulation with a cluster of notes, sweet and clear, that come floating downward from the blue ether, where the birds seem to bound along exultant in their motion and song alike.
In the spring the plumage of the goldfinch, which has been drab and brown through the winter months, is moulted or shed—a change that transforms the bird from a sombre Puritan into the gayest of cavaliers, and seems to wonderfully exalt his spirits. ”

“ They are such active birds that they need plenty of space. They chatter all day long and are very cheery, and they are very beautiful in their brown, gold, and scarlet coats. In a wild state the goldfinch feeds chiefly on the seeds of weeds and thistles, groundsel, and dandelion, and he is therefore a friend to the farmer, but in captivity be will thrive on canary and German rape with several hemp-seeds daily, and now and then lettuce, thistle-seed, and fruit. ”

“ It is too bad they do not summer in our Massachusetts woods, though possibly [61] I should care less for them if they made themselves neighborly the whole year long, like their relatives, the white-breasts.
A goldfinch is passing far above, dropping music as he goes. He is one of the high-fliers. Wherever you may happen to be, at the summit of Mount Washington or where not, you will pretty often hear his sweet voice as he wanders under the sky, dipping and rising, dipping and rising, voice and wing keeping step together. ”

“ The female may be distinguished by her more slender bill and brownish shoulders, (lesser wing coverts) . In the adult male the shoulders are jet black, but young males sometimes show traces of brown.
The young, known as “grey pates,” are greyish brown on the upper parts and lack the characteristic markings on the head. The true Russian Goldfinches are rather larger in size and have a nearly white rump. The true “Siberian Goldfinch,” which is seldom or never imported, lacks the black on the head. ”

“ It is frequently confused with the goldfinch; but careful observation of markings, of flight, and of song will show decided differences. The goldfinch has a black crown, wings, and tail, an unstreaked breast, undulating flight, and a sustained song. This little olive and yellow bird has no black in its plumage; it makes short flights, and sings a simple strain. It is not a seed-eater, like the finches, but is insectivorous.
YELLOW WARBLER ”

“ Fear was unknown to him, and from the moment of his arrival he was interested in everything that took place around him; looking at each bird in succession; making close study of every member of the family; noticing the sounds of the street, including the sparrow broils on the porch-roof; in fact, extremely wide-awake and observing. To the goldfinch's song he gave attention, standing motionless except for a slight nervous jerk of one wing, looking and listening as intently as though studying the notes for future use. ”

“ Descriptions in catalogues are often very loose, and there is no doubt that exhibitors sometimes erroneously describe hybrids of which the male parent is a Goldfinch as crosses between the "Bullfinch and Goldfinch." ”

“ It would be quite as easy to make several species of the common Goldfinch as of the European Dunlin. There is the greatest difference in size and plumage between the smallest race of Goldfinch found in the Mediterranean sub-region and the very large Goldfinches which are procured in some parts of Russia. But so many intermediate specimens can be found that bridge over the differences between the extreme types, that it is much more satisfactory to recognize the various races as being merely local variations from the original type.—H.A. Macpherson (Pitlochry, N.B.) . ”

“ For to this day the Goldfinch is persecuted by human folk who admire his wonderful plumage and his beautiful song. He is kept captive in a cage, while his less gorgeous brothers fly freely in the beautiful world out of doors. ”

“ The goldfinches were very late with their housekeeping. In July they were still gathering strings and cotton for their nesting. They are just as polite and gentle as the chickadees. Their name fits so well that anybody who sees these yellow birds, just like canaries with black wings and tail, ought to know them at once. Their song usually starts with 76 “Sweet sweet sweet,” and the rest is a regular canary song. They are sometimes called wild canaries.
EACH LITTLE GOLDFINCH CALLED AS LOUD AS HE COULD
The young goldfinches loved to sit on the edge of their nest as soon as they were old enough. ”

“ Nor is this world so difficult to enter as it seems at first. Science—whose help is needed—has, to be sure, shrouded itself in technicalities, buried its facts under scientific terms, and hidden its names in a dead language. But all this, which perhaps was necessary, can be got over. With a little courage, and some perseverance, this bristling array of difficulties may be broken through, and the charming goldfinch be as lovely and bewitching under the name of Spinus tristis, as of thistle bird, or yellow bird. ”

“ So well also do the birds of this species bear confinement, that they have been known to live ten years in captivity, continuing in song the greater part of each year. This tendency to sing and call make them valuable as brace-birds, decoy-birds, and call-birds, to be used by the [Pg 139] birdcatcher with his ground nets, while the facility with which others are captured, the numbers to be obtained, and the constant demand for them by the public, render the goldfinch one of the most important species included within the bird-dealer's traffic. ”

“ The idea of flying was still remote from their little pates. These observations prove that young bush-sparrows develop much more rapidly than young goldfinches; yet, strange as it may seem, the goldfinch, when grown, flies much higher, if not more swiftly, than his little neighbor, and continues longer on the wing.
On the same day I sat down in the clover, a few rods from the goldfinch’s nest, and kept close watch on both the old birds and their offspring for an hour and a half. ”

“ The goldfinch loses his bright feathers and canary-like song as the cold season approaches, but not even a New England winter can rob him of his sweet call and his cheerful spirits; and for one, I think him never more winsome than when he bangs in graceful attitudes above a snow-bank, on a bleak January morning.
Glad as we are of the society of the goldfinches and the red-polls at this time of the year, we cannot easily rid ourselves of a degree of solicitude for their comfort ”

“ The goldfinch does not build her nest in the hole of the tree, or in the crotch of the limb; but hangs it with exquisite skill on the slender waving, outward branch, where no animal, or larger bird, or any depredator, can be sustained. She is not more timid than others ”

“ The greenfinches are very sociable in disposition, and all the summer long, even when they are engaged in breeding, they may be seen in parties of three, or four, or half a dozen; two or three nests are often found on the same branch, or in close proximity. The passions of jealousy and anger, so common among birds in the pairing season, seem not to exist in this species. As a songster he cannot compare with the linnet, the chaffinch, and the goldfinch, but he probably produces more pleasant sound than any other finch, unless we include the chirruping of the sparrow. ”

“ The female Goldfinch is much darker in color. Instead of the black cap and black wings of the male, she is covered with a brownish olive above, and a yellowish white beneath. Indeed, she is much the more modest of the two. This little “Wild Canary,” who sings as he flies, is as useful as he is attractive. He eats objectionable weed seeds and other similar food. He is greatly attracted by sun-flower seeds and he would often come very close to our homes if we provided for him. ”

“ Among our familiar birds the matchmaking of none other is quite so pretty as that of the goldfinch. The goldfinches stay with us in lorn flocks and clad in a dull-olive suit throughout the winter. In May the males begin to put on their bright summer plumage. This is the result of a kind of [84] superficial moulting. Their feathers are not shed, but their dusky covering or overalls are cast off. When the process is only partly completed, the bird has a smutty, unpresentable appearance. But we seldom see them at such times. They seem to retire from society. ”

“ The hawking or street trade comprises about a tenth of the whole.
The sale of piping bullfinches is, of course, small, as only the rich can afford to buy them. A dealer estimated it at about 400 yearly.
The Goldfinch is also in demand by street customers, and is a favourite from its liveliness, beauty, and sometimes sagacity. It is, moreover, the longest lived of our caged small birds, and will frequently live to the age of fifteen or sixteen years. A goldfinch has been known to exist twenty-three years in a cage. Small birds, generally, rarely live more than nine years. ”

“ The male goldfinch behaves differently from all other finches: his wings are beautiful, the shoulders being black, with the dark-tipped wing-feathers spotted with white and edged with golden yellow. When he courts the female, he sways his body from side to side, and quickly turns his slightly expanded wings first to one side then to the other, with a golden flashing effect. No other British finch, as Mr. Weir informs me, turns during his courtship from side to side in this manner; not even the closely-allied male siskin, for he would not thus add to his beauty. ”

“ The Goldfinch inhabits a much larger extent of country than most others of its race, being found over the whole of Europe, in Madeira, the Canary Isles, North-western Africa, a large part of Asia, and even in Cuba. Districts rich in trees and plants are the favourite resorts of this bird, from whence it flies over the surrounding country in search of food, frequently visiting our fields and gardens, and enlivening us by its activity and beautiful song. When upon the ground, its movements are decidedly slow and awkward ”

“ Abundant in many mountainous regions, it has been given the name Rocky Mountain Goldfinch, and the olive-green color of the plumage of its back has given it the very appropriate name Arkansas Green-backed Goldfinch.
Like the common thistle-bird, it has a social disposition and feeds with its fellows in flocks of a greater or less number. Not infrequently several individuals will alight on the same plant and immediately begin a diligent search for their food of seeds. ”