Goldfinch

 

The goldfinch is a common visitor to bird feeders through out the United States. They are strictly seed eaters rarely consuming insects. At feeders they prefer thistle and nyjer seed. The breeding season for goldfinch comes later then many other birds, usually June or July. This is an advantage because this is typically around the time when plants like thistle are in bloom. The thistle seed provides food for the chicks and adults while the stringy substance that is attached to the seeds is often used in nest construction.

The goldfinch is the only finch that molts its feathers more then once a year. Molting is the process by which birds replace their feathers. Feathers are not living tissue, they are sort of like our hair, if they break they can not be healed. To make sure that their feathers stay in tip top shape birds molt once or twice a year. Birds that molt twice a year usually do so because they have more colorful plumage for the breeding season. In the species that molt twice both male and female will molt however it is usually much more obvious in the male. The bottom photo was taken in March when goldfinch are just beginning to molt into their summer breeding plumage. The top photo was taken at the height of the breeding season when the males are almost a neon yellow color.

American Goldfinch

American Goldfinch

If you have a feeder in your yard some place in the United States then chances are that you recognize the bright yellow bird above. The American goldfinch is common bird of fields and open woodlands but they are perhaps best known as frequent backyard visitors. They are almost strictly vegetarian, eating seeds they prefer sunflower, thistle, milkweed and nyjer.

Most birds molt once a year but goldfinch molt twice. The first molt is in late winter when the males molt into their bright yellow breeding plumage. The females are a dull yellow color with similar black wing bars, see the photo above. In late summer they will molt again and the males will become a dull yellow similar to the color that the female is year round.

Camera Criters: Gold Finch

The American goldfinch is a common bird in most of North America. The bright yellow and black coloration of the males makes them easily recognizable, however this is not the case all year long. People often do not recognize American goldfinch during the winter when it is in its non-breeding plumage. The American goldfinch is the only finch that molts twice a year. The first time is in late winter when the males get the bright yellow and black breeding plumage. The second molt comes at the beginning of fall when they shed their bright yellow for a duller version that is similar to the females coloration all year long.

American goldfinch prefer can be found in a variety of habitat but they prefer to live around weedy fields. This is handy because they are almost exclusively vegetarian. Thistle seeds are one of there favorite foods. It is a lot of fun to watch them tear into the plant pulling out the hairs, called pappus, to get to the seeds at the bottom.

Besides being a consciences vegetarian the American goldfinch is also a good environmentalist. Instead of throwing away all of the pappus from the thistle plant they will take some back and use them to build their nest. This may be part of the reason why they nest much later then other birds, in June and July.

Camera Critters: American Goldfinch

One of the sure signs of spring each year is when the American goldfinch males begin to molt into their bright yellow breeding plumage. Even though we just got a mess of new snow and the temps this weekend are only up into the teens for highs I have already begun to notice that many of the males are beginning to change. Maybe each year people should go out and check goldfinch color instead of relying on a groundhog to tell how much winter is left.

Goldfinch go through two molts each year. In the fall the males molt to a drab yellow color and then in the spring they go through another complete molt into the bright yellow breeding plumage. They are the only member of the finch family that molts both in the spring and the fall.
These pictures were taken back in August when the goldfinch are still in full breeding plumage. They were taken at the Marshland Center which is a part of the St. Croix National Scenic Riverway.
Since goldfinch are late nesters, they usually nest at the end of June or beginning of July, August, when these shots were taken would probably still be part of their breeding season.
All of my best goldfinch pictures always are taken when one of the birds is picking through the thistle looking for seeds, as he is in these pics.
The American goldfinch is a year round resident, at least in the southern part of Minnesota, but because of the difference in color between their breeding and non-breeding plumage the average person on the street is not usually aware that they are still around in the winter.

There is Gold at that there Purgatory Creek

The last weekend in July brought some nice weather so I decided to head back over to Purgatory Creek Park and continue my explorations there. The first time that I visited the park I did not have a lot of time so I only went around the wetlands to the path that lead to the blind. This time though I decided to follow the path all the way around the wetlands until I came back to the parking area where I began. The back side of the wetlands was a lot more wooded. That is where I found a very colorful male American goldfinch flitting among the trees at the edge of the marsh.
The American goldfinch actually goes through two molts per year. The first is in the spring when the males molt into their bright breeding plumage, like the bird in the photos. Later in the fall the bird will molt again into its much more drab winter colors.
Goldfinch nest later then most other passerines do. They do not begin their mating season until late June or early July. Some females that mate early enough in the season may leave the male to take care of the fledglings while she finds a second male to mate with and begin another brood.
Goldfinch are often seen feeding in groups, smaller groups in the summer and large flocks during the winter. They are primarily seed eaters and in my experience they have a fondness for thistle. I have fortunate to have had several opportunities over the past couple of years to photograph them while they eat wild thistle seeds. It is fascinating watching them remove the seed from the pod. Each seed has several silky threads attached to it to help it to propagate and spread by floating through the air. The goldfinch use these threads to pull the seed out of the seed pod and then eat the seed leaving the silky threads behind. Often these threads find a hold in the birds beak or feathers giving them a comical look as they continue to dig more seeds out. Unfortunately I did not see any thistle around at Purgatory Creek so I had to be satisfied with pictures in a tree.

Birding at Old Cedar Avenue

The next weekend in July found me back down at the Old Cedar Avenue Bridge / Bass Ponds. The birding that day was a bit slow but I still managed to find a couple of birds to photograph.
The bright yellow color of a male goldfinch, in breeding plumage, stood out pretty well against a backdrop of green algae. The American goldfinch is one of the more common birds seen here in late summer. This is probably due to the fact that it is a late nester, nesting in late June or July when most other passerines are already done. Last year I got some great goldfinch shots on the thistle by one of the ponds, but the higher water level this spring prevented the thistle from growing back in that spot. So I have not had the opportunities to photograph goldfinch that I did last year. I also managed to get a pic of a great crested flycatcher. Usually great crested flycatchers are found at the top of the trees so I felt fortunate that this one came down so that I could get a pick. I had spotted them several times around the Bass Ponds so I am guessing that at least one pair nested in the area, wooded swamps would be prime breeding habitat.

Birding at the Vince Shute Wildlife Sanctuary

The Vince Shute Wildlife Sanctuary is the best place to see black bears in Minnesota but it is also a pretty good place to do some birding, even though you have to do it all from the bear viewing platform. While we were there photographing the bears we did take time out to snap a few pics of some of the birds that we saw.
Eastern phoebe are pretty common through out Minnesota. The Land of 10,000 Lakes is great habitat for millions of bugs, which makes it great habitat for eastern phoebe and other flycatchers
Like many species of birds, the female goldfinch is not nearly as bright or colorful as her male counter part. This usually indicates that it is the female of the species that gets the privilege of selecting the mate. The males are all dolled up with their bright shiny feathers because they need to work hard to attract a good mate.
When I first spotted this bird I was not too excited because I thought that it was a house finch, which are fairly common through out most of the US all year long, but when I took a closer look I noticed that it has no streaks on its flanks. I believe that it is actually a purple finch, which we usually see only during the winter when they migrate south from Canada. Although Orr, MN is not all that far from the Canadian border.
The most exciting bird to watch that night was this yellow-bellied sapsucker. In southern Minnesota we usually only see sapsuckers during migration, but some birds do stop and spend their summer in northern Minnesota. The yellow-bellied sapsucker is the only member of the woodpecker family in the eastern half of North America that is completely migratory. They spend their summers in Canada and the Northern Great Lakes area and winter in the southeastern US, Mexico and Central America.
One of the ways that sapsuckers eat sap from trees is illustrated in the picture above. They will make shallow rectangular holes, in the tree, from which they lick up sap with their tongue, if you look carefully at the picture above you can see the birds tongue. These holes must be maintained regularly to maintain the flow of sap. The other way that sapsuckers extract sap is by creating a small deep hole in which it places its bill and probes for sap with its tongue.

Birding Wood Lake Nature Center

On March 26th I also made a foray to Wood Lake Nature Center to see how much of it was still under the grasp of winter.
Most of what I saw were pretty common birds like Canadian geese. It is about nesting time so when another goose approached this pair he was quickly shown the door.
The American goldfinch have begun to molt into the breeding plumage that most people recognize.
And northern cardinals are all over singing.
I was hoping to find an owls nest. I photographed a great horned nest for about 2 weeks at Wood Lake last year, which was the first thing that I began my blog with. But I had no luck.
I even approached this wood duck house hoping that maybe a small cavity nesting owl, like perhaps a screech owl, might be using the box but all that I found was a couple of annoyed squirrels.

MN Valley headquarters 2-21

Winters in Minnesota tend to last a long time and can get some what depressing. Sure we have some cool winter birds but most of them are only in the northern part of the state. Down here, in the southeastern part of the state we mostly see the same birds through out the winter such as dark-eyed juncos, tree sparrows, crows, goldfinch, white breasted nut hatch,

downy and hairy woodpeckers
and northern cardinals.
But in the last couple of weeks of February I started to notice some differences on my frequent trips to the Minnesota Valley NWR visitors center. There have been some changes and some new visitors to the feeding stations that they maintain there. One noticeable change is that the goldfinches are beginning to get there color back. Goldfinches molt twice a year, once in the winter, into the drab olive color and once in the spring into the brilliant lemon color that most people identify with goldfinch.

A new visitor to the feeders have been house finches. Originally house finches were a resident of the southwestern US and Mexico but in the 1940s they were introduced to the eastern US. Since then they have spread and are now year round residents for most of the US, including most of Minnesota. I have not seen many around this winter and I have not seen any at the MN Valley NWR this winter, until now. Anther year round resident that has been noticeably absent until recently have been house sparrows. House sparrows were introduced to North America from Europe in the 1800s.
The most exciting new visitor has been a fox sparrow.
While I remember some reports on the list servers back in December about a fox sparrow at the MN Valley NWR I have not seen any in my many trips here. Fox sparrows are birds that we usually only see during migration. There wintering grounds are in the southeastern US where there is less snow making ground foraging easier. Their summer breeding territory is in the western US, northern Canada and Alaska. Spotting a migrating fox sparrow is usually a good sign that the spring migration has begun. Let's hope so, we can certainly use a bit of spring up here in the frozen north.

First Bird of 2008

With the beginning of the new year a lot of people have been posting what was the first bird that they saw or heard in 2008 on the MOU list server. Most of them have seen some of our more colorful Minnesota winter birds like cardinals, robins, and goldfinch. I was not so lucky. The first bird that I spotted yesterday was a crow. Not much of a surprise there since we have a lot of crows around during the winter months. The first bird that I photographed in 2008 was this pair of eagles that I found on the river near Alma, Wisconsin.
After I checked out Alma for a bit I headed back up to the cities. Typically I take the MN side of the river but this time I opted for a bit of change and drove up the Wisconsin side. While I was heading north I spotted a red fox running on the side of the road near Pepin, WI.
I pulled over to the side of the road and snapped a few shots. I was not sure what he was at first so unfortunately I was only able to get a couple of pics of him running into the woods. It was still pretty cool. I also spotted an American goldfinch near Pepin.

I continued north up the Wisconsin side of the river until I got to Prescott, WI. There I stopped and looked for the barrow's goldeneye and harlequin duck that have been reported hanging around there. Unfortunately I was not able to spot either of them just a lot of Canada geese, mallards, common mergansers, and common goldeneye.There were also a couple of coots hanging around, including this one which was having a hard time holding on to its breakfast.The windchill was brutally cold so I had to make frequent trips to the truck to thaw out my fingers. After about an hour of freezing my butt off I decided to move on. I had planned to stop at Carpenter Nature Center since it is right down the road from Prescott and Point Douglas. Unfortunately due to the holiday Carpenter was closed. I was getting hungry so I decided to head home.

Cedar Waxwing at the Bass Ponds

After checking out Black Dog lake on Monday I went across the river to check out the Old Cedar Avenue Bridge/Bass Ponds area. Things were pretty quiet. I did find a lonely gold finch out on a snag.
Down the path something I heard something moving through the leaves. At first I thought that it was a squirrel in the woods on the side of the path but then I saw a line moving through the grass. It was a gardner snake.
This was not too far from where I found a red-bellied snake earlier in the summer.

I continued on around the ponds. Down on the river there where a lot of ducks, coots and geese but they were too far to get a good shot. On the first pond there were also some geese I decided that I would go try and photograph them since there was not much else going around but as I rounded the path just before the first pond I saw several birds. They were in the bushes and trees so I could not Identify them at first but I followed them around the path. Fortunately they stopped at a bush that was full of blue berries. As the ate I could see that this was another small flock of cedar waxwings.
While I was taking pictures I heard voices coming up the path. I frequently get annoyed because my shots get spoiled by hikers, fishermen, cyclists or people walking their dogs coming through. As they rounded the corner I could see that one of the women had on a pair of binoculars. I thought that I got lucky and that these where other birders coming up the trail. They saw me taking pictures and stopped on the trail. I thought that they would prolly want to see what I was looking at. I was wrong. They sat on the path in front of the bush that the waxwings were in and continued their conversation at the same volume that they where using when I heard them a ways down the path.
It did not take long for the last waxwing to leave. I like to see people out enjoying parks and nature. It gives me hope that if enough people enjoy them then perhaps we will have enough help to save them, but I really wish that some people where a bit more considerate.