Two autumnal birds

 

As always, click the photo to enlarge

A rather disheveled looking male American Goldfinch (Spinus tristis) plunders seed from a robust native sunflower, the Jerusalem-artichoke (Helianthus tuberosus).

Last week was a whirlwind of talks: Thursday, Friday, and Saturday nights. The latter two gigs were in the Cincinnati region. And those last two were about moths, a common speaking topic for me the past few years, following the release of THIS BOOK.

The Thursday evening talk, which was delivered via Zoom, was for a class at Phipps Conservatory in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. It was about plant photography, another talk that I really enjoy presenting.

Anyway, on Friday, Shauna and I headed southwest to the Fernald Preserve in Hamilton County. Despite its history, Fernald is evolving into nearly 1,000 acres of excellent and diverse habitats. I've done a number of trips there, and it is always interesting. I gave the moth talk in their nice meeting room, then we went outdoors for mothing and caterpillaring.

The next day, we went exploring before my talk that night, which was at the Oxford Lane Library in Oxford (home to Miami University). Kudos to the library staff for creating a very inviting setting for a program and packing the house. Lots of students and some faculty, and lots of good questions.

Anyway, back to the exploring. The goldfinch above was photographed at Gilmore Ponds, a preserve in Butler County, owned and managed by MetroParks of Butler County (The odd presentation of "MetroParks" is on them).

I hadn't been to Gilmore Ponds in ages, and it proved productive. We mostly tried for birds, but the middish-day mostly bright light was not stellar. Tons of turtles, too, and I might post images of a few later. But I did enjoy documenting the goldfinch on a native seed source that I had not shot them on before.

A female Black-throated Green Warbler (Setophaga virens) investigates Black Walnut leaves (Juglans nigra). It was part of a mixed-species feeding flock, and we saw/heard lots of fall migrant songbirds at Gilmore Ponds.

As far as subject matter goes, few groups can be as tough as getting presentable images of migrant fall warblers. Their colors are generally muted, the foliage is still thick, and the birds are mostly silent other than the odd chips and other soft calls. They can blend remarkably well with the senescing foliage, and moving birds resemble blowing leaves.

American Goldfinch, eating elm samaras

 

I got out for a few hours this morning to shoot birds, and visited a decent little local patch in Delaware County along the Scioto River. The American Goldfinches were conspicuous, and the males had mostly molted into their handsome yellow summer coats.

These males fairly bubbled over with song as they enthusiastically gamboled about, singing on the wing and from perches. I kept half an eye on them as I pursued various other quarry, and was pleased when this chap alit near the top of an American Elm sapling. In between bouts of song, he would pluck elm samaras (seeds) and crunch them down.

I quickly panned the camera to the goldfinch in the hopes of documenting not only one of our most beautiful birds, but to catch him in the act of samara-eating. And here he is, having just plucked one.

American Goldfinches are probably the closest thing to a feathered vegan in our neck of the woods. They will opportunistically take the occasional insect, but the overwhelming majority of their diet is vegetable matter. Even the nestlings are fed a regurgitated semi-glutinous gruel of partially digested plant matter.

Even though Brown-headed Cowbirds regularly parasitize goldfinch nests, the cowbirds chicks usually perish within three days. This near 100% mortality rate is apparently due to the lack of protein in the goldfinch's plant-based diet. Cowbird chicks, and those of nearly all of our songbirds, require ample protein in the form of insect-based diets.

Not so the interesting American Goldfinch, which bucks the dominant songbird dietary paradigm.

A ghostly goldfinch

Photo: Ian Adams

These excellent images come courtesy of Ian Adams, celebrated landscape and nature photographer, and I appreciate him allowing me to share them. Shortly after Ian put out feeders at his Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio residence, he attracted this oddity to the tubed up thistle seeds. That's a male American Goldfinch up top, still largely in its somber winter colors. It won't be too much longer, and it'll shed those bland feathers and explode into the brilliant lemony hues of a wild canary.

The lower bird is not as clearcut an identification, and could be a stumper if it were seen by itself. The fact that it consorts with goldfinches helps on two counts: guilt by association, and the fact that we can readily compare it to other normally clad members of its species.

Photo: Ian Adams

We beam in on the ghostbird, and can easily see the trademark characters of a male American Goldfinch bleeding through. This individual is leucistic (loo-kis-tik), leucism referring to a genetic anomaly that causes dark melanin pigments to become washed out and pale. I've written about leucistic birds plenty of times, and THIS ACCOUNT gives a more in-depth explanation of the phenomenon. Leucistic animals are sometimes confused with albinos, but the latter would have pink eyes and most likely be snow-white. Truly albino birds generally don't fare well, either, at least in the wild. Their feather shafts and other supporting structures tend to be weakened, and their vision can be impaired, none of which aids survival.

The prevalence of leucism is probably essentially an odds game. The more individuals in a species' population, the more likely a leucistic individual will show up. That's why "piebald" (as leucistic animals patchily blotched with white are often known) are commonly reported in abundant species such as American Robins, Red-tailed Hawks, and White-tailed Deer.

Thanks to Ian for sharing his images. I hope this goldfinch sticks around so that we can see what if anything changes as it progresses through its molt into alternate plumage. If you're in the Cuyahoga Falls area and are interested in seeing/photographing this ghostly goldfinch, flip me an email and I'll pass along Ian's contact info.

Gorgeous goldfinches gluttons for grain

 

Male American goldfinches in breeding plumage

                                          

The Columbus Dispatch

August 18, 2013

 

NATURE

Jim McCormac

 

Vegetarianism isn’t popular among songbirds. Few caterpillars or other insects are safe when warblers, wrens or chickadees are about. Even birds that are primarily seed-eaters, such as sparrows, shift to a diet high in animal matter when chicks are in the nest. The rapidly growing youngsters need protein to prosper.

Enter the American goldfinch. The gorgeous little “wild canaries” go against the grain by eating almost nothing but grains and other vegetable matter. Goldfinches commonly visit backyard feeders and especially covet thistle seed. In wilder places, they also seek sunflower seeds, grasses and myriad other types of plant fruits. Although goldfinches occasionally wolf down an aphid or two, for the most part they shun the bugs.

When goldfinches descend on a ripe patch of sunflowers or well-stocked feeders, it’s as if a pack of debonair feathered piglets has landed. Many a collector of wild prairie seeds has been thwarted by the finches. Arrive to the flower patch too late and you’ll be greeted by little flecks of gold bouncing between the seed heads, stripping them of their fruit. Not to fret, though: The finches rightfully have first dibs.

Their vegetarian preferences serve goldfinches well when it comes to parasitic brown-headed cowbirds. Female cowbirds dump their eggs in other bird species’ nests, usually to the detriment of the host. The growth of the cowbird chick outstrips that of the native chicks, which often perish due to the cowbird receiving most of the parent’s food. Cowbirds don’t thrive on plants alone, however, and they soon die when subjected to the vegetarian diet of the goldfinch.

Male American goldfinches are now at the peak of their feathered finery. They sport a jaunty black cap and ebony wings and tail, which form a striking contrast against brilliant golden-yellow body feathers. Females don’t attain the bright colors of males, resembling a somber version of their showy mates. Goldfinches seem to exude happiness, gamboling about with an undulating flight constantly punctuated with sweet singsong twitters. They are social animals, too — quite tolerant of their brethren and prone to flocking at favored feeding sites.

Goldfinches are busily breeding now. They delay nesting to coincide with the maturation of thistles, coneflowers, coreopsis and other plants in the massive sunflower family. The down of ripe thistle, especially, is heavily integrated into their nests, and late summer’s abundant crop of seeds provides fodder aplenty for the chicks.

Enjoy the colorful male goldfinches while you can. Come fall, they will commence the most conspicuous molt of any of our songbirds, rapidly shedding their lemony feathers and taking on the muted tones of the females. They’ll ride out the winter dressed down. But come spring, the male goldfinches will cast off their low-key plumage and flash to life in a living sunburst explosion — Nature’s wild canaries reborn.

Naturalist Jim McCormac writes a column for The Dispatch on the first and third Sundays of the month. He also writes about nature at www.jimmccormac.blogspot.com.

Male American goldfinch in nonbreeding plumage

 

American Goldfinch

It's high time that I had a bird on here - after all, birds are in the title of this blog! So here's some ornithological eye candy, the American Goldfinch, Spinus tristis. This stunning male was photographed in Adams County, as it plundered thistle feed from one of John Howard's feeders. Goldfinches are nearly vegan, you know.

Goldfinches are late nesters, and kicking it into high gear about now. This is one of our most common bird species, and rare to non-existent is the field trip that doesn't produce "wild canaries". Abundant though they are, American Goldfinch ranks very high on the list of our showiest birds. Males are also noteworthy in that they may have the most conspicuous molt of any of our songbirds. The transformation of the males from somber winter plumage into the Day-Glo electric lemon of summer is noted and remarked upon by scores of backyard bird-watchers.

American Goldfinch

I led a bird walk today, and some of the participants were very new to birds and birding. We saw many interesting species: Pileated Woodpecker, Cooper's Hawks displaying, Blue-gray Gnatcatchers constructing a nest, Ruby-crowned Kinglets flashing their topknots, etc.

Winner of the ooh and aah factor award?

It may have been this species, the American Goldfinch.

Few of our breeding birds in Ohio are as magnificent as a male goldfinch wearing his springtime finery. Coupled with their uplifting, undeniably cheery song, this is certainly a bird worthy of oohs and aahs.

It's easy to get jaded by repetition, and I've probably seen countless thousands of goldfinches. I hope they never lose their lustre, for me.

These photos were taken this afternoon in Worthington, Ohio.