American Goldfinch
Description
4 1/2-5". Smaller than a sparrow. Breeding male bright yellow with white rump, black forehead, white edges on black wings and tail, and yellow at bed of wing. Female and winter male duller and grayer, with black wings, tail and white wing bars. Travles in flocks; undulating flight.
Voice
Bright per-chick-o-ree, also rendered as potato-chips, delivered in flight and coinciding with each undulation.
Habitat
Brushy thickets,weedy grasslands, and nearby trees.
Nesting
4 or 5 pale blue eggs in a well-made cup of grass, bark strips, and plant down placed in the upright fork of a small sapling or shrub.
Other
This familiar and common species is often called the " Wild Canary." Since the bird's main food is seeds, nesting does not begin until midsummer, when weed seeds are available. Thus goldfinches remain in flocks untill well past the time when other species have formed pairs and are nesting. Because they nest so late, only a single brood israised each season. In the winter they gather in large flocks, often with other finches such as redpolls and Pine Siskins..
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