Tuesday, March 27, 2018

New Diner

3/25/18 yellow diner at our feeder

Now that some spring migrators are in town, we’ve occasionally seen new birds at our feeder. Recently this bright yellow fellow was dining leisurely enough that I could capture him. With that hue, I thought it could be an American goldfinch (our state bird, though I rarely see it), but the one I saw and sketched did not have a black head. The black markings on his wings formed a chevron in the same way that they do on a pine siskin. In fact, I’ve sketched a male pine siskin with some yellow, but I’ve never seen one this bright. I couldn’t find anything quite like it in my bird ID books.

Anyone know?

Edited 3/27/18: ID’d by Alex MacKenzie as a female American goldfinch!

4 comments:

  1. Maybe a tanager? I have seen one passing through at this time of year occasionally. Bright yellow and no black cap, but I am not sure about the wing markings.

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    1. I looked that up too, but I think Alex is right -- female goldfinch.

      - Tina

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    2. The tanager would have black all the way up the back. They're also bigger than a finch if you have any other birds to compare size to.

      I love goldfinches and used to see a lot of them when I had my feeders up, lovely birds and of course, the American Goldfinch is our State bird!

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  2. Alex, I think you're right! My book shows only the male (of course ;-) ). Thanks!

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