Skip to main content

American Goldfinch

Male (right) and Female (left)
Sorry for the completely last post today. I'm snowed in and everything is white, so today I felt like writing about an animal with some color: the American Goldfinch. As their name might suggest, there songbirds are native to North America, and can be found throughout at varying points of the year. Some populations remain in place year round, while others are migratory, moving between Canada and the Northern USA, down to the South and Mexico. They are found in brushy, mostly open habitats.

Both male and female Goldfinches are yellow, though the males are far more vibrant, especially during the breeding season. They are the only finch species to molt twice a year, and breed relatively late for a songbird.

American Goldfinches are notable for their very strict vegetarian diet. While many bird species feed on the occasional insect, Goldfinches eat exclusively seeds. This has an interesting affect on the Brown-Headed Cowbird. These birds sometimes lay eggs in Goldfinch nests, but the hatchlings are unable to survive due to the all-seed diet the Finches provide for their young.

Goldfinches are not a threatened species. They have a massive range spanning some 5 million square miles (about 8 million square km).

Labels:

Comments

  1. Hannah Q. ParrisDecember 13, 2010 at 3:25 PM

    Yay! My favorite bird :)

    ReplyDelete
  2. LaurenDecember 13, 2010 at 6:41 PM

    One of my favorites too. My parents have them in their yard during the summer.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Burmese Peacock

Polyplectron bicalcaratum Burmese Peacocks are also referred to as Grey Peacock-Pheasants, which is probably a more apt name, as they are not actually Peacocks... though they do belong to the same family. At any rate, they share some physical resemblances to Peacocks- most notably the eyes on their tail feathers. Burmese Peacocks are the national birds of Myanmar, which was called Burma until 1989, though some still refer to it as such. The birds live in several other Southeast Asian countries as well, and are divided into four subspecies. The species as a whole is listed as being of Least Concern , because they have a large range and population size. It unfortunately appears that they may be declining in number, but it is a slow descent that does not yet meet the vulnerability thresholds. The birds are listed under CITES Appendix II, because they can be kept in captivity and grabbing individuals from the wild could become problematic for the species. IUCN Stat...
3 comments
Read more

Bornean Orangutan

The Bornean Orangutan is one of two extant Orangutan species in the world. It is the third largest primate (after Gorillas) and is the largest primarily tree-dwelling animal in the world. Males are substantially larger than females, and average at around 165lbs. Bornean Orangutans are largely solitary. A handful might live within a small range but they will seldom interact with one another. Males and females only meet up to breed, which happens only once every several years. A young Orangutan will stay with it's mother for about five years, and the females tend to go about eight years between births. That is the longest interim period of any animal! Sadly, the Bornean Orangutans are in a lot of trouble. They need large forests in order to thrive, and deforestation and habitat degradation has left many homeless. They are also hunted for meat and for traditional medicines. Conservation areas are being established to help these guys in the wild, and it is believed that there are a...
59 comments
Read more

Four!

For anyone who was counting, yesterday was our birthday-- four years! Four years filled with animals from A to Z, more than 1,100 of them! I can't thank my readers enough, it's been wonderful! And in celebration of that milestone... I'm taking a break. Hopefully not forever, but for a little bit at least. In the mean time I plan on getting a new layout out, along with some updates to some of the older articles. I'll post updates here and on the Facebook page, I'm also brainstorming some new animal-related projects, so keep an eye out! Thanks again for four awesome years!
18 comments
Read more