Photo: American Goldfinch, Hazel Erikson
Tom Blackburn
Goldfinches always make me smile. The male birds’ bright yellow plumage and black wings with white racing stripes liven up our garden as the flowers are starting to fade away. Goldfinches are the circus acrobats of our garden as they balance on our coneflowers while pulling them apart to reach the seeds. Then they launch into bouncy flight, calling on each upward swoop, like children at the crest of each roller coaster rise.
At this time of year, Northern Cardinals often look scruffy as they molt. Scarlet Tanagers have turned from bright red to dirty yellow, if you can find them at all. Warblers have turned from spectacular to confusing and European Starlings have shed their iridescent feathers for spotted winter coats. I find their cast-off feathers in the yard. However, goldfinches breed later than other songbirds to take advantage of midsummer and early autumn seeds. As a result, they are still exuberantly yellow well into fall.
I still remember flocks of thirty or more brilliantly-colored goldfinches swooping onto our lawn when I was growing up. It was almost as exciting as the day I saw my first Indigo Bunting shining in the afternoon sunlight. However, there aren’t as many goldfinches as there were when I was a child. The now-famous study documenting the loss of 3 billion birds found that there are 35% fewer birds in the finch family than there were in 1970. It’s likely that there is an even greater decline in goldfinches as compared to 60 or so years ago, when I remember seeing their flocks in the yard.
Would you like to encourage goldfinches to visit your yard? Unlike most songbirds, goldfinches eat seeds almost exclusively. They love zinnias and coneflowers, and we never regret watching them remove flower petals to get at the seeds. Among native plants: sunflowers, thistles and milkweed are favorites. If you have a bird feeder, be sure to stock it with sunflower and Nyjer seeds. The goldfinches will thank you with their bright colors and enthusiastic habits.