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.

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.