NORTHWESTERN GOLDFINCH 469 



Distribution 



Range. — Coastal slope from southern British Columbia to south- 

 western Oregon. 



Breeding range. — The northwestern goldfinch breeds, and is largely 

 resident, west of the Cascade Mountains from southwestern British 

 Columbia (Port Hardy, Chilliwack) south to southwestern Oregon 

 (Rogue River Valley) . 



Winter range. — Winters north to southwestern British Columbia 

 (Vancouver, Chilliwack). 



Casual records. — Casual east of the Cascades in British Columbia 

 (Lillooet). 



SPINUS TRISTIS SALICAMANS Grinnell 



Willow Goldfinch 



PLATE 25 



Habits 



Dr. Joseph Grinnell (1897b) named this Pacific Coast race. Its 

 type is a male taken at Pasadena in December. He says that the 

 winter plumage of the male is similar to the winter plumage of the 

 eastern goldfinch, "but browner with much broader wing-markings. 

 In these respects it thus resembles *S'. t. pallidas, but is easily distin- 

 guishable by its extreme darkness.* * * 



"The female in winter plumage is similar to the male, but the black 

 of the wings and tail is less pure, and the throat is duller colored; 

 biU dusky." 



Of the summer plumage he says: "In this plumage the male is 

 scarcely distinguishable from S. tristis; the black cap is, if anything, 

 not so extended, and the yellow is not so pure and intense as in the 

 eastern form. The white edgings of the wing-feathers are often 

 entirely worn off, so that the wing is left with barely a trace of white. 

 BiU, in life, darker, almost orange-ochraceous. The wing and tail 

 average shorter, and the bill bulkier. 



"The female in breeding plumage is readily separable from the 

 eastern bird by its much darker color. The female S. tristis is 

 brightly tinged over the whole breast with yellowish green, while 

 the female S. t. salicamans is duU greenish yellow on the throat, 

 becoming stiU duskier anteriorly. Even juveniles of the Willow 

 Goldfinch just from the nest are deeper and darker colored than those 

 of S. tristis proper." 



The 1957 A.O.U. Check-List states that it is resident west of Sierra 

 Nevada in California and in northwestern Baja California and that 

 it winters in southern California east to the Mohave and Colorado 



