Posted in Weather, Wild Birds, tagged 2/10, american goldfinches, American Goldfinches in a Galvanized Bucket, Arkansas, goldfinches, oats, sunflower seed on February 10, 2015| 1 Comment »
I put a galvanized bucket by a shed this afternoon (2/10). It had a few sunflower seeds and a few oat grans in the bottom. The American Goldfinches found the bucket and began cleaning it out; which I thought was funny – they show no fear. I guessed they were starved and went to town to get more nijer seed and filled the feeders this afternoon. Not great photos had to grab the nearest camera:
Posted in Wild Birds, tagged american goldfinches, Arkansas, autumn, parthenon on September 18, 2014| Leave a Comment »
They are so beautiful ! Not much molting is evident to their more subdued fall-winter coloration yet (female top – male bottom):
Posted in Weather, Wild Birds, tagged after nesting 2014, american goldfinches, Arkansas, back, parthenon on August 30, 2014| Leave a Comment »
Posted in Wild Birds, tagged american goldfinch, american goldfinches, Arkansas, Boston Mountains, native seed crop, parthenon, thistle on July 1, 2014| Leave a Comment »
The American Goldfinches are busy nesting now. They nest later than other songbirds each year (usually late June – early July). They wait until the native seed crop is plentiful and then disappear from thistle tube feeders for about one month; only to return in late July – August with their fledglings. I photographed this male American Goldfinch pulling seeds from a native thistle seed head yesterday, and the one above in a valley with piles of deadwood where they often nest:
Posted in Weather, Wild Birds, tagged american goldfinch, american goldfinches, Arkansas, hundreds, near, Newton County, nijer seed, parthenon arkansas, Purple finches on February 25, 2014| Leave a Comment »
I have been feeding the American Goldfinches all winter long (since November 15) and I probably have about 150-200 finches at this time. Very few House and Purple finches have visited the feeders so far. I have 4 tube feeders with Nijer Seed and they are always full of hungry finches. This has cost me $120+ per month this year. There are 2 River Birches that they line up on; in a feeding queue, and wait their turn at the feeders. It becomes really chaotic at times.
Lately there has been more fights and and quarrels than in past weeks; they are also beginning to show some yellow from an ongoing molt. These birds do not nest until late summer; when the seeds are plentiful, but will take Nijer seed all year around. American Goldfinch males will turn bright yellow within 30-45 days and the females will stay an olive-yellow color. The males also have a completely black forehead after the molt is complete.
Posted in Wild Birds, tagged 2013, american goldfinches, boston, creek, February, in, late, molting, morning cloak, Mountains, mourning cloak, nature, richland, richland creek, telephoto lens, yellow on March 2, 2013| Leave a Comment »
These photos are a week old now; from back when the sun used to shine (its been mostly cloudy for a week now and unseasonably cold too), 28F again this morning. These are of American Goldfinches just beginning to molt to yellow; with 5 weeks they will be bright yellow. The mourning cloak was in the snow at Richland Creek, two weeks ago. I took the Goldfinch photos in my yard with a telephoto lens about Feb 20th, 2013:
