Not the most
sullen sky nor the bitterest cold seems to discourage Goldfinches. They are
always cheerful and affectionate, keeping together for the greater part of the
year in larger or smaller flocks, which call to each other, if separated, by
notes as sweet as those of a Canary. In summer, Goldfinches find an abundance
of food in the seeds of many species of plants, but in winter also many remain
even in the Northern States, searching cheerfully among the dry weeds and
grasses, and uttering their sweet notes. Many people, however, do not notice
them at this season, for when winter comes the head and body of the males of
this species, as of many others, lose the bright black and yellow which marks
them so distinctly in summer, and are clothed in dull brownish shades. About
the first of April, one notices here and there in a flock a male that shows a
few bright yellow feathers, and by another month, they have moulted their
winter dress and are as gay as ever.
In the
spring and early summer, the Goldfinches are extremely musical, spending hours
in uttering a simple but pleasing song. Several males now engage in what seems
to be a musical contest, flying out from a tree and circling about with set
wings, all the time keeping up a continual strain. When flying through the air
at a considerable height, they go in long curves, and utter during each
undulation three or four simple notes. As they seem constantly to have business
in one part or other of the country, the wave-like flight and characteristic
notes become a common feature of the summer landscape.
Though the
Goldfinches are here all winter, they delay nesting till very much later than
the other resident birds; the Chickadees have their first brood already out in
the world by the time the Goldfinches determine on building. The female is a
modest-colored little body, as is often the case where the male is bright. The
pair generally builds in July, and chooses some thick leafy tree, often a maple
or poplar, and there, on a limb at a considerable height from the ground,
construct a very neat nest, deep and cup-shaped, built of fine materials and
lined with down from plants like the thistle. Here five or six bluish white
eggs are laid, and when in another month the young Goldfinches begin to fly, it
is at once evident from their sharp, insistent crying. As the calling of the
young Orioles is a mark of late June, so the notes of the young Goldfinches
become associated with August.
Goldfinches
are very fond of the seeds of many kinds of composite flowers; they bite holes
in unripe dandelion heads and take out the seeds; thistles are another favorite
food, and a row of sunflowers planted in the garden will not fail to attract
them. In winter, besides the seeds of weeds, they feed on birch seeds,
scattering the scales over the snow, and they even pull out the seeds of the
pitch pine, when the scales begin to loosen toward spring.
No bird has
livelier, more cheerful ways than our Goldfinch, and none becomes a greater
favorite. People are often at considerable pains to remove the dandelion plants
from their lawns; if the gay flowers themselves do not repay one for their
presence, many would certainly allow them to remain in order to have the
pleasant spectacle, in summer, of a flock of yellow Goldfinches scattered about
the grass and feeding on the seeds.
No comments:
Post a Comment