The little plush goldfinch is made by Wild
Republic and is part of their Audubon Bird series. Check the
Gift Shop
to see if it is still in stock. We also have the Goldfinch
bell and Keepsake
Box. The Goldfinch resin 
figurine
at right is available
here.
The American Goldfinch (Carduelis
tristis) is common in flocks in weedy 
fields,
bushy thickets and in seed-bearing trees. Food includes thistles,
sunflowers and dandelions. Female and young are recognized by
the unstreaked back and breast, stubby finch bill, wingbars,
notched tail, whitish rump, and undulating roller-coaster flight.
Male in winter and immature resemble female. Song is long, high
and sweet. Call is "per-chik-o-ree." Goldfinches are
about 5 inches long. They are smaller than a sparrow. The breeding
male is bright yellow with a white rump, black forehead, white
edges on black wings and tail, and yellow at bend of wing. Goldfinches
travel in flocks; the flight is undulating.
Late in the summer, the female goldfinch
lays 4 or 5 pale blue eggs in a well-made cup of grass, bark
strips and thistle down. The nest is placed in the fork of a
small sapling or shrub.
Goldfinches breed from southern British
Columbia east to Newfoundland and south to California, Utah ,
southern Colorado, central Oklahoma, Arkansas, and the Carolinas.
They winter in much of the United States.
Order: Passeriformes | Family:
Fringillidae | Species: Carduelis tristis
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to The Aviary Index
