Notes

American Goldfinch Nest
American Goldfinches are one of the most popular bird species to attract with feeders and planted gardens. They’re year-round residents here in Washington state and across the central and eastern United States. But they have a short breeding window in summer and typically only produce one brood per season.

The male’s lemon yellow body, ebony black cap, and touch of white on the head make them easy to identify in open meadows or overgrown weedy fields. They’re also distinctive in flight, with their acrobatic wing flutters and up-and-down movements.

Goldfinches build their simple cup nests in a wide variety of habitats from rural to urban areas. They prefer habitats with low shrubs or trees where they can place a nest 4-10 feet high. tổ yến tinh of the nest is a tightly woven cup made of fine plant fibers from roots, stems, seeds and catkins, often with a lining of the soft down from thistles and milkweed. The rim is reinforced with flexible, strong fibers found in nature like spider web and caterpillar silk. It’s said that these nests are so tight that they can actually hold water.

Females choose the nest site, build the nest, and incubate a clutch of 4-6 greenish-blue or bluish-white eggs for 10-12 days. They have one brood per season, and the chicks fledge about two weeks after hatching. Both parents feed the young birds a diet of seeds, which they partially digest and regurgitate for them. The male and female mate for life, and the old male may assist in feeding the first brood of young for up to three weeks after they leave the nest.

The American Goldfinch’s late start to nesting - it’s the last of all North American songbirds to begin mating and nesting each year – is thought to have developed in order to take advantage of the abundant seed crops that are growing during this time period. Their nesting season peaks in mid to late August, by which time most other songbirds have already raised multiple broods and begun migration.

Unlike many other songbirds, which use insects to feed their young, American Goldfinches raise their chicks on a diet of seeds. Adults even partially digest and regurgitate seeds for their chicks to acclimate them to eating the hard, spiny seeds.

If you want to encourage American Goldfinches to visit your garden, plant a wide mix of flowering plants and include thistles and other seed-rich plants in the mix. And don’t forget the water - a plastic plate of fresh water in your yard or a birdbath can be a great way to attract these colorful birds. To see how climate change could affect the future of American Goldfinches, check out Audubon’s Survival By Degrees project. You can select a temperature scenario to learn how warming will affect their range and the other species they share our landscapes with. Audubon’s scientists use 140 million bird observations and sophisticated climate models to project how temperature changes will impact our backyard birds, wildlife and communities across the nation.
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