Websailor's Wacky Wildlife World
Created | Updated Apr 29, 2009
A quirky look at wildlife. To be taken with a pinch of
salt, but with more than a grain of truth!
A Precious Little Jewel
My first ever sighting of this little gem came in the third week of February 2003. Glorious flashes of gold and red on the bird feeders drew my eye instantly. Something new! After 34 years in the same house I thought I had seen everything the local wildlife had to offer, but there were still more surprises in store.
European Goldfinches, Carduelis carduelis, are such lovely little birds, it is no wonder the collective noun is a 'charm' of goldfinches. Like many finches they arrive in groups. How can I be so accurate about the timing of that first sighting? I record bird sightings in my garden for the
British Trust for Ornithology and my paper and online records pinpoint it exactly. The goldfinch is the reason I joined the BTO Garden BirdWatch scheme in the first place. If I was seeing such things, how many others were too? And when, and where? The questions came thick and fast and the scheme answers all of them. If I was going to spend time bird watching from my window, it made sense to record properly, and contribute to the sum of avian knowledge in the UK. I have done it ever since, with a great sense of satisfaction.
I am pleased to say they have been back every year since, though not in such large numbers. Maybe I will see more this year. I do hope so.
For those unfamiliar with this species, the goldfinch is about the size of the average finch, 4½"(12cm) but noticeably slimmer. Average weight is a mere ½oz(14-17g). It has red, white and black on the head, a buff coloured back, and white underparts. It has black wings with brilliant yellow bars which flash a stunning gold in flight and are particularly noticeable when they are fluttering around feeders. The chin and forehead are bright red and the black around the face tends to give them a grumpy look which always amuses me. This is of course the male, and the female is similar except there is less red, and the colours are slightly more muted.
Juveniles, especially very young ones, are easily spotted as although initially they lack the red black and white heads, the yellow flashes mark them out instantly against the buff/brown plumage of the rest of the body. As with most birds the adult tail and wing feather colours come first. Their constant fluttering 'begging' to be fed is cute to watch, but as they grow you can see the parents insisting they begin to find food for themselves, and looking very stern about it too!
They are present all year in the UK, but tend to be seen in gardens at particular times and can be absent for weeks on end. In my garden they have been present in numbers between two and eight, for 206 weeks out of the 323 weeks I have been recording. Other people are lucky enough to get 15 or more.
Their first appearance brought them to the sunflower seeds in my feeders. Once I had established that their favourite food was nyjer seed , similar to their favourite thistles, then they were given their exclusive feeder, with tiny feeding holes to keep the minute seeds from falling out too quickly. Once more confident in this new habitat they happily fed on tables and the ground tucking into peanut granules too.
Their wild food consists of insects, birch (also in my garden) alder, lavender, thistles (I let a few survive just for them!) teasel and dandelions. Oh, boy! are they going to have a feast this spring, as dandelions seem to be really flourishing. They are flowering at an inch tall to combat grass verge and lawn cutting, when their natural undisturbed flowering height is about six inches, which shows they are determined to fight back against human interference.
The sight of goldfinches bouncing and hanging upside-down on tall thistles is great fun to watch, so long as gardening neighbours don't notice the seed heads flying into their manicured gardens and taking root.
The goldfinch breeding season starts mid to late April and continues to August, which explains why a goldfinch was foraging in my hanging baskets in the last week or so and pulling out chunks of the coconut fibre lining. So, added to their nests of grass, moss lichen and wool, is coconut fibre. Proving as birds so often do, that they will adjust and make use of any suitable material however 'foreign' to their habitat.
The male has a tough task as he attempts to feed both himself and the incubating female. The offspring are fed by both male and female so his work is not finished when they hatch! They can have up to three broods a year, averaging five or more eggs each time if conditions are right, so it looks like they have a busy time ahead. Time to stock up on nyjer and sunflower seed methinks.
Their status in the UK is listed as Green, but in the 1970s numbers dropped drastically, yet another victim of the universal use of chemicals, and they are still at risk from loss of habitat and changing farming practices. They used to be kept as caged birds, for their glorious colours and delightful singing, and unfortunately they are still at risk from the trade in song birds in parts of Europe. Unfortunately the UK is still a big player in this dreadful trade as current news
tells us.
Thankfully, the numbers have increased by 50% in the past 30 years or so, but trapping should be of concern to everyone. The idea that I might be feeding goldfinches to give such people more birds to trap is sickening. However, it is important to continue boosting their chances of survival, as bad breeding years can cause numbers to decline rapidly. It didn't quite make the RSPB Top Ten in 2009, the long tailed tit just piping it to the post, but it is there at number 11, so there is hope yet.
Many birds are full time residents, while others head for southern Europe for the winter, but milder temperatures seem to be keeping more of them here permanently. Oddly, more of the migrating birds are females, and they do not necessarily migrate every year. European birds also swell our numbers in the autumn as they head down the eastern side of the UK.
So keep your eyes open for that flash of gold or tinkling song, keep some nyjer seed handy and enjoy all the good things spring has to offer.
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