American Goldfinch

Adult males in summer have brilliant yellow plumage with a black forehead, black wings with white wingbars, and a white rump. In winter, both sexes molt into a duller, brownish-olive color with dark wings and buffy wingbars. Females are generally duller yellow-olive year-round with yellowish underparts and lack the black cap.

Conical orange-yellow bill (in summer), black wings with distinct white wingbars, notched tail, and characteristic undulating flight.

Length: 11-14 cm (4.3-5.5 in), Wingspan: 19-22 cm (7.5-8.7 in), Weight: 11-20 g (0.4-0.7 oz)

Call is a distinctive, undulating flight note often described as 'per-chick-o-ree' or 'po-ta-to-chip'. Song is a long, cheerful series of warbles, trills, and twitters.

Strictly granivorous, feeding almost exclusively on seeds from weeds, grasses, trees (such as alder, birch, and cedar), and flowers. They also feed insects to their young.

Found in weedy fields, cultivated lands, floodplain forests, suburban areas, and overgrown orchards where seed-producing plants are abundant.

Short-distance migrant; northern populations move south for the winter, while southern populations are largely year-round residents.

Breeds much later in the season than most North American songbirds (usually July or August) to coincide with the peak availability of thistle down and weed seeds. Builds a tightly woven cup nest in a vertical fork of a deciduous shrub or tree, laying 2 to 7 pale bluish-white eggs.

Lesser Goldfinch and Lawrence's Goldfinch in western North America. Female and winter American Goldfinches can also be confused with Pine Siskins, but lack the heavy streaking of siskins.

Acts as an important seed disperser and helps control weed populations by consuming large quantities of weed seeds, particularly from thistles and dandelions.

Least Concern, with stable populations.

Look for them visiting backyard bird feeders offering Nyjer (thistle) seed or sunflower seeds, or listen for their distinctive flight calls in open fields, weedy meadows, and along forest edges.

American Goldfinches are one of the strictest vegetarians in the bird world, feeding almost exclusively on seeds and even delaying nesting until late summer when plant fibers and seeds are most abundant for raising young.