Thar’s Gold in Them Thar Finches!

With the price of an ounce of gold skyrocketing these days, there’s one species of bird in the late summer that floods the outdoor market for bird watchers at a low cost. Singing perhaps one of the sweetest and most endearing calls, the “music” of the “American Goldfinch” is a rhapsody of the non-Bohemian kind.
Recently having the good fortune of sitting on a deck located north of Olds, mere feet away from a giant mountain ash tree and a large flowing water fountain, the song of the goldfinch was appreciated. It’s early September and the new generation of finches are still pursuing their parents for food. Male parents, most in the middle of a feather molt and looking somewhat disheveled, are working hard to keep their offspring well fed. It’s evident that the late summer warmth is having an impact on these finches, as many a thirsty-looking adult is enjoying the water in the fountain. In looking in the yard and in the nearby trees, its’ clear that at least twenty goldfinches are nearby. The sweetest cacophony of finches fills the air.
Thought of as a “wild canary” due to the male’s bright yellow color, this finch family member is strictly vegetarian. In the past weeks at various birding spots, we observed goldfinches stripping open thistle, dandelion and goat’s beard seed pods. In addition to these delicious foods, sunflower and nyjer seeds are also finch favorites. What also makes this finch unique is the process of feather molting twice a year, late in August and a second time during the winter months. Timing in the goldfinch “market” is unique as well. Migration is timed so that breeding and nesting is done in June or July, when milkweed, thistle, goat’s beard, wild grasses and birch trees have produced seeds. These seeds are built into the nest and then fed to the young. Goldfinches can have second broods. We recall seeing very young finches in a nest in mid September. Being vegetarians does have advantages. Cowbirds will lay eggs in finch nests which will hatch. However cowbird young need to eat insects to survive and end up dying in goldfinch nests. Unfortunately, yellow warblers true insect eaters, end up raising cowbird young to adulthood.
Goldfinches travel relatively short distances during migratory season. Wintering from the Florida panhandle to California, these finches return to southern Canada and as far north as central Alberta to create the next generation. A few winters back, some goldfinches stayed in Calgary, spotted at Queen’s Park Cemetery from time to time.
We enjoyed spending five days watching the sizable flock feast on the potpourri of seeds in the yard and take the odd bath in the water fountain. The endearing calls of the goldfinch reminds us that having gold in ones backyard in uncertain times is a fine investment.