American Goldfinch (Carduelis tristis) Common in flocks in weedy fields, bushy thickets and in seed-bearing trees. Food includes thistles, sunflowers and dandelions. Female and young are recognized by the unstreaked back and breast, stubby finch bill, wingbars, notched tail, whitish rump, and undulating roller-coaster flight. Male in winter and immature resemble female. Song is long, high and sweet. Call is "per-chik-o-ree."

Goldfinches are about 5 inches long. They are smaller than a sparrow. The breeding male is bright yellow with a white rump, black forehead, white edges on black wings and tail, and yellow at bend of wing. Goldfinches travel in flocks; the flight is undulating.

Late in the summer, the female goldfinch lays 4 or 5 pale blue eggs in a well-made cup of grass, bark strips and thistle down. The nest is placed in the fork of a small sapling or shrub.

Goldfinches breed from southern British Columbia east to Newfoundland and south to California, Utah , southern Colorado, central Oklahoma, Arkansas, and the Carolinas. They winter in much of United States. I've had them visit my feeders in the Spring. I'm in Southern California.

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Order: Passeriformes | Family: Fringillidae | Species: Carduelis tristis