American Goldfinch Images

American Goldfinch Images, Facts and Information:

Spinus tristis

  • American Goldfinches are small finches with small heads, conical bills, short notched tails and long wings. Males in breeding plumage are bright yellow with black foreheads, black wings with bold white patterns. Females are much duller. During the winter American Goldfinches are drab with hints of yellow on their heads and flanks.
  • American Goldfinches molt twice a year, the only member in their family to molt in the spring.
  • American Goldfinches are migratory.
  • Their diet consists almost entirely of seeds and they prefer hanging onto the seed heads to feeding on the ground.
  • American Goldfinch habitat includes brushy thickets, weedy fields, grasslands and floodplains. They are also quite common in suburbs, parks and backyards.
  • American Goldfinches lay 4 to 6 eggs which hatch in 10 to 12 days. The female incubates and they are monogamous.
  • American Goldfinches have also been called “eastern goldfinches” and “lightning birds”.
  • A group of goldfinches can be called a “charm”, “rush”, “treasury” or “vein” of goldfinches.
  • The oldest known goldfinch was nearly 11 years old.

I hope that you enjoy viewing my American Goldfinch photos.

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