Wildlife moment: State bird a frequent visitor

The bright and cheery American Goldfinch is our state bird. This small finch is a familiar visitor to folks maintaining a thistle feeder, hanging acrobatically as it picks for these minute seeds. It also visits yards with mature birch trees with seed catkins, but it is far less visible than at a feeder, staying mostly hidden in a dense tangle of branchlets.  In downtown Yakima, look also in sweetgum trees, which also produce tiny seeds.

WHERE AND WHEN: Easiest to see in suburban yards with feeders stoked with thistles or niger seed. It also frequents fields with seeding thistle plants. Here it can be observed at the top of these plants, dangling acrobatically, as they glean tiny seeds or the cottony fluff surrounding the flower head. The goldfinch uses this “cotton” to line its nest. Away from yards, goldfinches flock, particularly in fall and winter, to riparian drainages with alder and water birch. Here they pluck the tiny seeds from the catkins from birch or from the “cones” of alders. As both these types of trees produce seeds erratically, some years see few or no goldfinches in certain riparian drainages while in others, the birds may be abundant if seed production is ample.

HOW TO SPOT ONE: In spring and summer, this bird is well-named and easy to spot. At that season, the male is brightly attired with a jet-black cap, wings, and tail, and its body a brilliant golden. Females in the nesting season are much more subdued in their coloration. While identifying this bird is easy in spring and summer, it a real Jekyll and Hyde; in winter it changes attire to a somber putty-color with only a tiny bit of yellow on its head. At this season, it blends in very well with the surrounding grays in the landscape. Often quiet when feeding, American goldfinches are much more vocal when in flight, uttering a twittering call rendered phonetically as “Per-chic-o-ree,” or “Potato Chip” as they bounce along in undulating flight, as is typical of finches. Its song in spring is a protracted jumble.

CHOW TIME: Tiny seeds of thistle are a favorite as are equally tiny seeds of birch, alder and sweet gum trees. Thistle “socks” at feeders are eagerly sought.

SOCIAL LIFE: Goldfinches are social birds, nearly always in flocks ranging from a few birds to several hundred. Flock size is lowest in the breeding season and highest in winter. Winter flocks range widely in search of food, seeking fields or trees where seeds are most abundant. Because seeds are the mainstay in their diet and seed availability increases as the summer advances, goldfinches delay their nesting until food for young is adequate. Thus, they are among the latest of our birds to begin breeding, often not until June or July.

WHAT YOU MAY NOT KNOW: If you watch goldfinches at your feeder closely, you may notice a distinctly greener goldfinch. Check your field guide and see if this different bird might be a Lesser Goldfinch. Lesser’s are birds of the oak and grasslands throughout the southern United States. Their normal haunts range north to the garry oak belt in Klickitat County. A few have appeared at feeders in the Yakima Valley. If you spot a Lesser Goldfinch please call the hotline at 248-1963.