AMERICAN GOLDFINCH(Carduelis tristis)The males are bright yellow with a black cap, the females are not as colourful during the summer as the males are, and in the winter they are both a much duller olive colour.
Around here, these birds are called Wild Canaries, which is incorrect, but it does describe their appearance, which looks a lot like a canary, and they are about the size of a Sparrow.
Here on our Hobby Farm, we see these little birds in the summer time, eating the tall thistles which grow around the edge of our fields. I think this must be their favourite food because flocks of them decend upon these weeds, which they eat with much enjoyment! These birds build their nests in Pussy Willow bushes, Orchards and other trees, and build their nest from plant fibres, grasses and even strips of bark.
They begin nest building in late June or July when other birds have already finished breeding, with the famale doing the majority of the building, then these little birds lay their 4 or 5 pale blue-white eggs. The female is a good and faithful mate, until her eggs have hatched, at which time some of these ladies fly the nest and find another male with whom to mate, and lay another clutch of eggs!
The young are brown during their first fall and winter, with buff wing markings and black shoulders, which differentiates them from the adult birds.
These birds live all across southern Canada including Southern Ontario. These beautiful birds eat the seeds of Thistle, Ragweed, Sunflowers, Dandelion, and can be attracted to your back yard bird feeder filled with Niger seed (sometimes called Nyger or Njger seed).
Below is a YouTube video of the
Hinterland Who's Who - the American Goldfinch
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Often seen in trees which are in open spaces, these are sociable birds which love to feed and fly with their own kind, but during the winter time, they flock with their close relatives, the Siskins and Redpolls and can be seen feeding in fields of weeds and orchards.
