Bird of the Week: Lesser Goldfinch

Photo courtesy of Alan D. Wilson

Species: Lesser Goldfinch, Spinus psaltria

Family: Fringillidae

Sign: Sagittarius 

Favorite hobby: Acrobatics

Dear reader,

Like the American robin, the lesser goldfinch is a sign of spring to me. Though they are year-round residents in Portland, their lilting song from precarious perches on tall stalks of grass is most common as their breeding season sets in during the spring. Their more distinctive relative, the American goldfinch, can also be found in Portland, but I have seen more of the lesser goldfinch in this and past years. Lesser goldfinches are small passerines, and have the form of most finches, with forked tails and large seed-eating beaks. They have yellow stomachs and breasts, with glossy black caps. Their backs and wings are dark, muddled green, and they have white stripes on each wing. This back color can vary to even a dark black, especially west of the Rocky Mountains. Female lesser goldfinches are a dusty yellow, with darker wings and the same white wing bars as their male counterparts. 

Lesser goldfinches stick to seeds through and through. Their favorites are ones from the sunflower family, but they are also partial to various fruits and tree buds: elderberries, madrone fruits, cottonwoods, alders, sycamores, willows, and oaks. Their large bills allow them to pry open outer coverings easily, and with a shake of their heads to get rid of the husk, they can get at the seed. Like many passerines, lesser goldfinches travel in groups to feed, moving from stalk to stalk and tree to tree. Perching on a stem with a large head, like a sunflower, they will hang upside down to pluck seeds out of the head. The lesser goldfinch’s range overlaps with that of its larger relative, the Lawrence's goldfinch, in California, but the lesser goldfinch remains dominant over them. At feeding sites, the feisty lesser goldfinches eat first, and chase the Lawrence’s goldfinches away from nesting spots. 

The male lesser goldfinch is known sonically for its breeding call, which intricately combines clear notes with wheezes, trills, and stutters, as well as the songs and calls of other birds, like flycatchers, verdins, thrashers, kestrels, and other species. Their songs are unpredictable and bubbling, often making them sound like a soundboard being played at random. Their call is also important to courtship, as it draws the female goldfinch into their territory, where they engage in a high speed chase through the foliage, ending in a courting display, which includes soft calls and bill touches. Through the first days post-courting, the male goldfinch will feed the female, transferring seeds to her bill. They do the same when the female is sitting on the nest during egg incubation. They maintain an interesting relationship, to say the least. Like bushtits, lesser goldfinches travel in groups, so look out for a flurry of yellow and muted green in the seed-producing trees this spring.