American Goldfinch

These little golden wonders have been showing up more and more in my life recently. I started painting them because of their striking color, but now I see them floating and flitting around my neighborhood and they are quickly becoming a favorite. The American Goldfinch seem to be a pretty easy going bird. They like many different kinds of bird feeders including platform feeders and hanging feeders, as long as they don’t move in the wind too much. They also like spilled seeds on the ground, especially sunflower seeds and nyjer. To keep them safe from disease, keep the ground around feeders well raked and keep your feeders clean. To learn more about this, visit Project FeedWatch’s Safe Feeding Environment.

They are attracted to native thistles and milkweed in the yard. As a matter of fact, they love weedy spaces with lots of native flowers and shrubs over a highly manicured lawn. They also love asters, sunflowers and coneflowers and possibly are attracted to yellow flowers but thistle is their number one choice. They are strict vegetarians, and their nest is a cup shape, so they like trees that will give a nice support like dogwoods, and fruit trees. They move south in the winter and they breed in June or July utilizing milkweed and thistle into their nests. They will molt their body feathers twice a year, in late winter and late summer. This fall, I am working on getting some feeders in the yard to observe and photograph some birds, and hopefully Goldfinches will be one of my most common feathered friends.

I found my information on: https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/American_Goldfinch/

And https://www.birdsandblooms.com/birding/attract-goldfinches-backyard/