434 ANIMAL LIFE IN THE YOSEMITE 



Willow Goldfinch. Astragalinus tristis salicamans (Grinnell) 



Field characters. — About half size of Jimco. Sexes different in summer, nearly alike 

 in winter. Male in summer brilliant canary yellow, with wings and tail black and cap 

 black; edgings of wing feathers white, and white showing in mass at end of tail (fig. 

 53a). Female dull greenish brown, with white markings of male obscurely represented. 

 In winter both sexes brown above and light grayish brown beneath; wings and tail as 

 in summer, but light edgings on wings more conspicuous. Flight markedly undulating 

 and buoyant. Voice: Male in summer has a spirited and varied song; a characteristic 

 series of notes is given during flight, and there are simple call notes. 



Occurrence. — Common resident of the lowlands (Lower Sonoran Zone), less numerous 

 in foothills (Upper Sonoran Zone), on west side of Sierra Nevada. Observed at Snelling, 

 near Lagrange, and at Pleasant Valley, and reported from Yosemite Valley. Shows 

 marked preference for vicinity of willows. Usually in flocks of varying size. 



The Willow Goldfinch is the mo,st brightly garbed of our three species 

 of 'wild canaries,' the body plumage of the male during the spring and 

 summer season being clear yellow, set off by black on the head, wings, 

 and tail. As both its English and Latin names indicate, this bird is a 

 frequenter of willow growths and is to be looked for accordingly in the 

 neighborhood of water. In the Yosemite region, however, it is restricted 

 to the lowlands, and we did not find it in the willows which line the rivers 

 and creeks at the higher altitudes. 



We found Willow Goldfinches in numbers only at Snelling and below 

 Lagrange; in other words, in the Lower Sonoran Zone. At the former 

 place in January, 1915, from 6 to 8 could be recorded in a half -day census ; 

 by May of the same year they were much more in evidence, as many as 

 40 being recorded on the morning of May 26, 1915. Then they were flying 

 about continually, in pairs or little companies, and some were foraging 

 with linnets in patches of star thistle. As late as October 22, 1915, they 

 were abundant, 32 being seen in 13 minutes from the window of a train 

 going from Snelling to Merced Falls. A single bird was collected at 

 Pleasant Valley on December 1, 1915. We saw nothing of the species at 

 any of our other camps in the foothills, but Mr. Donald D. McLean tells 

 us that the Willow Goldfinch occurs regularly at his home 6 miles east 

 of Coulterville. Mr. Otto Widmann (1904, p. 69) saw this goldfinch in 

 Yosemite Valley once, on May 21, 1903, and Mr. Joseph Mailliard (1918, 

 p. 16) reported it there on August 19, 1917. The species was not seen at 

 all by us east of the Sierras. 



The flight of the Willow Goldfinch, and in fact of all of our goldfinches, 

 is markedly undulating in its course and the bird is light in its carriage. 

 The wings do not beat continuously, but after a few strokes there is a 

 slight pause. The beats carry the bird upward and then as the wings 

 remain closed it swings down again. This succession is repeated over and 



