Spinus tristis
Order Passeriformes
Family Fringillidae
Subfamily Carduelinae
♂ Adult male.— Crown black; body bright yellow; wings and tail black, spotted with white.
♀ Adult female.— Upper parts brownish-olive; under parts yellowish, with a dusky wash on the throat and breast; wings and tail like the male’s, but duller.
♂ Male in winter.— Like the female, but with black-and-white wings and tail.
Immature.— Like winter adults, but browner, the wing-markings brownish instead of white.
Nest, a gray cup, lined with down, placed in fork from five to thirty feet up.
Eggs, white.
The Goldfinch is a common permanent resident of New England and New York. As winter approaches, flocks, sometimes of over fifty birds, gather together and wander about, feeding on the seeds of birches or on the seeds of weeds and grasses in neglected fields. At all seasons the birds are fond of the seeds of composite flowers; a gay company often scatter over the lawn and feed on dandelion heads; bachelor’s buttons, thistles, and sunflowers also attract them. By May the males have recovered their yellow and black, and begun to twitter their sweet if rather characterless song. They are still in flocks, even when other birds are building. By June, however, they are met with in pairs, the dark female with the bright male, and by July they are building in the sugar maples or apple-trees.
While the female is brooding the male goes swinging over in deep undulations, calling te tee’ de de, and she answers with a simple te’ de dee, te’ de dee. When the male sings on the wing, he flies around in circles, with broad, fluttering wings, and keeping the same level; but the ordinary flight is undulating, and in midsummer the male often seems to accent the curve, as if enjoying the great plunge through the air. The voice is always sweet; one call-note is very like a call of the Canary, swee-ee, with a rising inflection. The young bird, just out of the nest, has a peculiar call, chi-pee’, a characteristic sound in late summer.
Goldfinches often associate with Redpolls and Siskins, when these visit southern New England, but may be distinguished from them at all seasons by the black and white in the wings and tail, and by their unstreaked breasts. The winter plumage of the male is very different from the bright yellow and black of spring, but there is always a tinge of yellow on the throat.
Hoffmann – A Guide to the Birds of New England and Eastern New York (1904)