WISCONSIN BIRD-STUDY BULLETIN. 1] 



AMERICAN GOLDFINCH, THISTLE BIRD. 



Resident; length about five incites; sexes unlike; nest a tliich 

 walled, compact, ivell made cup, outside of fine grasses, fibres of hark, 

 wool and moss, inside thickly lined with thistle-down, wool and cot- 

 ton; eggs three to six. 



This is the yellow bird that so many people in Wisconsin call the 

 wild canary.* The resemblance between our wild finch and the cul- 

 tivated immigrant from the Canary Islands is so striking, sometimes, 

 both in color and voice, that the name seems almost justified. Let us 

 be patriotic, however, and claim our own bird as the American gold- 

 finch. How well the name suggests his clear, beautiful, yellow body 

 color. This, mth his black crown, wings and tail make the male bird 

 an easy one to know. The female, though dressed in the same general 

 colors, is much harder to identify. The yellow is darkened to a 

 brownish olive, and the black of the wings and tail is a dusky, brown- 

 ish black. The crown patch is wanting. She may be known by the 

 company she keeps better perhaps, than by the colors of her coat. In 

 the fall the male changes color and then looks like the female. 



I'he goldfinch is one of the birds that is easy to recognize by the 

 manner of flight. He adopted the coaster-brake style of locomotion 

 ages before the days of the bicycle. He pumps vigorously for a few 

 strokes and sends himself forward on an upward, wave-like curve, 

 then takes it easy for a bit and falls through another graceful curve. 

 He seems to enjoy the coasting slide and sings "Now, here we go" as he 

 falls. The wavy line of flight and the song " per-chic-o-ree " as so 

 many know it, are nicely illustrated in Mr. Frank M. Chapman's 

 Hand Book of Birds. 



The voice of the goldfinch is peculiarly soft and clear. His call is a 

 short "sweet" and "dearie" that arouses in his human hearer feel- 

 ings of tenderness and affection caused by no other wild bird and 

 rivalled only by those suggested by the sweetest notes of the canary 

 In the mating season the song is prolonged and canary like. To hear 

 a flock of them singing in chorus is an event of a season. 



Being a seed eater, the goldfinch finds it possible to remain in Wis- 

 consin throughout the winter. They are so much less noticeable in 

 their winter plumage that many people do not recognize them. They 

 rove through the fields in large flocks feeding on the seeds of the weeds 

 that stick above the snow. 



They are most abundant during the last week of April and the first 

 week of May. This may be because many of them have returned from 

 farther scmth^ or they may only seem commoner because the male has 

 again put on his summer coat and because they go in flocks. The 



*In some part's of the country the yellow warbler is called wild 

 canary. 



