The sun is shining brightly over the edge of the woods and over large patches of weeds. There is a beautiful song toWEE toWEE toWEEto tweer tweer tweer, and then, as you approach, comes a frighened ti ti ti ti ti di di di, as a burst of yellow joins the sunlight in the sky. This is the American Goldfinch. He is yellow except for black on the wings and forehead. She has a yellowish wash over the breast, pink bill, and black on the wings. Otherwise, she is a dull grayish, brown, as are both sexes during the fall and winter (1).
The birds range over much of the eastern United States but become conspicuous only later in the summer when they nest, as they wait for the weed crop to reach its peak (2). The pair becomes territorial, and a small tree is chosen to build a carefully constructed, concave nest from pieces of grass, bark, and fluff from seeds, where 4 or 5 bluish eggs are incubated and counted on for reproduction. If it fails, it will be too late in the summer to start a second brood.
The American Goldfinch is about 5 inches in length (smaller than a sparrow), weights 0.5 or 0.6 ounces, and has a wingspan of 7 or 8 inches. It is agile and undulating in flight, and uses both its conical beak and toes in feeding, as it holds on to seed pods. It adjusts well to humans and is a popular bird (https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/American_Goldfinch/id). The states of Iowa, New Jersey, and Washington have chosen it as the state bird, though called the Eastern Goldfinch in the east and Willow Goldfinch in the west.
The scientific name of the American Goldfinch is Carduelis tristis at least in older guides. It is placed in the true finch family (Fringellidae), along with the similar Lesser Goldfinch, Carduelis psaltria, and some other birds with common names such as redpolls, siskins, and grosbeaks. If common names are not confusing enough already, then changes in scientific names, particularly the genus name (first word in the scientific name) may be changed to add to the confusion. Scientific authorities make the changes for good reasons to show relationships more closely, but bird watchers using the older excellent guides in the field may find changes when referring to such excellent websites as Cornell University’s allaboutbirds.org, which uses the genus name Spinus.
The cardinals, buntings, sparrows, and grosbeaks are similar birds in that they are mostly seed-eaters with relatively thick, conical beaks, but not necessarily closely related. Genetic similarity is increasingly used in classification and causes re-arrangements in how authorities group birds. Certain types of genetic changes occur slowly and give clues to ancestry, whereas other types of change respond rapidly to natural selection. Peter and Rosemary Grant (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_and _Rosemary_Grant) in a forty-year study in the Galapagos Islands beginning in the 1970s discovered that finch beak size responded to selection brought on by competition and drought within a period of a few years. If beak size can adapt quickly, it may not be as reliable as it was once thought for classification.
In any case, as a nature-loving child growing up in the country with lots of weedy roadsides, the song and appearance of the American Goldfinch was one of my July-August experiences that I would not wanted to have been without. I may not have known their genetics, or even appreciated their service in controlling weeds, but the bird called the “American Canary” earned its reputation in my childhood estimation.
- National Audubon Society: The Sibley Guide to Birds, Alfred A. Knopf, Inc., New York, 2000 by David Allen Sibley
- National Audubon Society: Field Guide to North American Birds, Alfred A. Knopf, Inc., New York, 1998, by John Bull and John Farrand, Jr.
