Birds · Passeriformes · Fringillidae

American Goldfinch

Spinus tristis

Least Concern

The species is abundant and widely distributed; it faces no significant short-term risk. See full glossary

The American goldfinch — known in Spanish as jilguero yanqui or cardelina americana — is a small finch whose male in summer is an intense canary yellow with a black forehead and wings. It is strictly a seed eater, which is unusual among small birds, and that diet governs its calendar: it breeds in high summer, far later than any other bird in its range, when the thistles set seed.

Weight

11 g – 20 g

Size

11 cm – 13 cm

Lifespan

11 years

Diet

Herbivore

Feeds mainly on plants.

Activity

Diurnal

Active mainly during the day.

Sighting difficulty

Easy

Temperate forestGrasslandHerbivore Diurnal Bird Temperate forest Grassland

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Fun facts

GeneralIt breeds very late, in July, to make use of the thistledown it lines its nest with.
It shares a genus with the Eurasian siskin (Spinus spinus), already in this catalogue: both moved from Carduelis to Spinus in the same revision.
It is one of the most popular feeder birds in North America.
Its epithet tristis means "sad" in Latin, a name hardly in keeping with its bright yellow plumage.
It breeds in July and August, months later than the rest of North America's birds, because it waits for the thistles to seed and release the down with which it lines the nest.
Its strictly seed-eating diet protects it from the brown-headed cowbird: that parasite's chicks cannot survive on a diet of seeds and die within a few days, so the goldfinch has no need to defend itself against brood parasitism.
The male moults to a dull olive brown in autumn and regains the intense yellow in spring: it is one of the few North American finches with a complete moult twice a year.