American Goldfinch    Carduelis tristis

Migratory Status: Short-distance migrant

PIF Population Estimate: 24 000 000

Percent of western hemisphere population breeding in boreal forest: <25%

BAM Effective Detection Radius (m) : 73.87

PIF Maximum Detection Distance (m) : 125

Canadian BBS Population trend: -0.4 n.s. (-1.2 to 0.4)

Life History

The American Goldfinch could easily be one of the most recognized and enjoyed songbirds in North America. Male breeding plumage is striking, consisting of bright, lemon yellow body feathering, black wings and crown, white wing-bars, and white under-tail feathers. Females are much more inconspicuous than their male counterparts, having duller, olive green body plumage instead of bright yellow. The American Goldfinch is a frequent visitor to backyard bird feeders, especially those offering thin seeds, such as thistle. Other natural food sources it uses in urban areas include grass seeds, dandelion seeds, and birch catkins.

The complex and highly variable song of the American Goldfinch is not the primary means that observers use to identify this species in the field. The much more common and highly recognizable flight or contact call, which is often paraphrased as “potato-chip, potato-chip”, is how many distinguish the species audibly.

The breeding range in Canada extends from coastal British Columbia, east to south-western Newfoundland. Central portions of the breeding range also extend north throughout central Alberta and Saskatchewan, and south to central Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama. The winter range in Canada includes the lower Great Lakes and southern portions of the Maritime provinces. Recent increases in the number of residential bird feeders have greatly increased the numbers of goldfinches over-wintering in more northern areas of the breeding range. The primary winter range is highly variable and overlaps greatly with portions of the breeding range, to include the entire United States south of Canada and northern Mexico. Wintering birds, however, tend to be scarce across the Great Plains in winter, especially in years of extreme cold.

Reference(s)

Middleton, A. L. 1993. American Goldfinch (Carduelis tristis), The Birds of North America Online, . A. Poole, Ed. Ithaca: Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology; Retrieved from The Birds of North America Online database: http://bna.birds.cornell.edu/bna/species/080