Goldfinches in their winter plumage, at a Moscow feeder. Photo by Sarah Walker

by Sarah Walker, from the February 2007 Newsletter

“You have goldfinches at your feeders this winter? I thought they migrated,” a friend said. She’s thinking of the gaudy yellow and black breeding look of the summer male goldfinch, the outfit that says “migrant—must winter in the tropics,” but goldfinches do indeed live here year round. And as easily as we recognize the summer male, we might be puzzled by flocks of small birds in winter with muted tan and olive bodies, black and white wing and tail. Even in winter dress, though, they’re hinting at who they are—look for patches of bright yellow on their chins or a stray black pin feather on their foreheads. From winter to summer, they’re an entirely different looking bird, the only finch to pull off such a dramatic color change.

How do these tiny birds stay warm? For insulation, they grow an “overcoat” of extra feathers, a layer that might weigh twice as much as their summer feathers. For fuel, they consume large amounts of their favorite food—seeds, seeds and more seeds. Most songbirds eat insects and have to fly south when cold weather kills off their food source. But for seed-eaters, food is always available. Goldfinches are able to live on, and even raise their young, on seeds. And they can eat a lot of them, quickly, even stuffing extra undigested food in a throat pouch for later. (We feeder-suppliers notice this because the thistle-like seed preferred by goldfinches costs twice as much as ordinary sunflower seed).

It’s seeds that steer goldfinches’ lives and cause them to do something very unusual: they don’t start nesting until the heat of summer, late in July. By this time other songbirds are done nesting. Goldfinches time their nesting to match the blooming of flowers in the Sunflower family. Many flowers in the Sunflower or Aster family tend to bloom later in the summer and they produce lots and lots of seeds, an abundant supply for feeding young birds. The plant species goldfinches prefer the most is thistle, and “thistle bird” is one of their nicknames.

Each summer, females build a new nest, by themselves. They weave them from spider silk and plant fibers, then add a lining of soft fluff from plants like thistles, cattails, or milkweed. The nests are so tightly woven that they can hold water. During summer rains, the mother must cover the open nest with spread wings, to keep the nest from filling with water and drowning the nestlings. The female incubates the eggs by herself. Her muted plumage helps keep her and her family hidden from cats, squirrels or crows.

Goldfinches do well in small cities like Moscow. There are landscaped yards with the small trees, flowerbeds and open space that goldfinches like—these are not birds of tall dense forests. And of course in towns there are backyard feeders, a reliable source of high quality food year round. In winter, a ready source of food is critical to survival. A small bird can only store enough food to survive one night, in really cold weather.

The downside of life in town is the car, and the domestic cat.

This winter, flocks of goldfinches swarmed my two thistle feeders every morning. They were the first to arrive – before the house finches, chickadees, quail, juncos, or squirrels. They stuffed themselves through the morning then went away, probably to roost among the sheltering branches of a dense conifer. During the very cold weeks of January, their feeding got more intense. Birds are able to sense falling barometric pressure and eat more before a storm.

Last summer, I kept seed in my feeders. In late August I watched fledgling goldfinches fluttering around the tubes, practicing landing and plucking seeds through the tiny holes.

Goldfinches are known as the birds of summer because of their bright colors and cheerful singing. During the hot months, when other songbirds have stopped singing, the goldfinches are still at it. I hear their flight call, “Per-chic-o-ree,” over my street most summer days. Right now they may be in your yard, and the males are probably starting to show more and more yellow, a very early sign of spring.

Copyright: Copyright on articles, recipes and images are jointly held by the Moscow Food Co-op and the respective contributors, except were otherwise noted.

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