The Practiced

details,you realizethat they'relike KennKaufman snowflakesin anotherway: No two are exactlyalike. The yellowabout THEPRACTICED EYE theface may be bright or dull,exten- 7•xtand Illustrations byKenn Kaufman sive or limited or nonexistent. The bodyplumage may be anything from brownto gray.The wingsmay be blackor darkgray or brown,with wingbars of whiteor yellowor rich goldenbuff. Much of thishas to do Notes on Goldfinch with ageand gender;for example, adult males tend to have blacker wingsand moreyellow around the Identification face.But a lot of it merelyreflects the individualvariation shown by every speciesof bird,variation that we all toooften ignore. Springis a particularlygood time for lookingclosely at American Goldfinches,because they are chang- ing feathers,going through a molt. (Someindividuals may not finish their"spring" molt until July--prob- lookingat flocks of goldfinches? Very ablybirds that will start nesting activ- The active little little,I suspect.The flockmay get a ityin latesummer.) This is the preal- finches swirl like quickscan for Pine Siskins (C. pinus), ternatemolt, and it createsstriking and then the birder moves on to look changein themales, who go from the snowflakes around forsomething more "interesting." But drabbasic tones of winterto bright AmericanGoldfinches are worthy goldenalternate plumage of summer. of dosestudy, be- weedstalks, but causethey demon- stratesome impor- if youconcentrate, tant thingsabout variation in birds. you realizethat In a series of they're like snow- birdingworkshops that I've been teach- flakes in another ing, one of our field exercises has way: Notwo involvedlooking at the variabilityof are exactlyalike. individual birds in a flock. A winter OVER MUCH OF THE CONTINENT, mob of American from southern Canada to northern Goldfinches makes Mexico, the American Goldfinch a good focusfor (Cardudistristis) is among the most such an attempt. familiar birds, in summer or winter The active little or both. Because it is featured in all finchesmay swirl the beginners'books on birds,it like snowflakes a- tendsto bequickly learned, and then round the weed largelyignored. stalks or feeders, In eastern North America, how Figure1. A maleLawrence's Goldfinch singing. NI threeof ourgoldfi.cb but if youconcen- species have complicated songs; Lawrence's and Lessergoldfi.cbes vary muchtime do birders spend actually trateenough to seetheirs byappropriating ("mimicld.g") notesfrom other birds. Volume 47, Number I ß159 F'•gure2. Female-plumagedAmerican and Lawrence's goldfinches. Left: Adult female American Goldfinch in winter. Gontec Adult female American Goldfinchin mid-summer.American Goldfinch shows mare seasonal change in appearancethan the uthertwo species. The male's change fTom goMen alternateplumage (summar) to thesofter tones of hasicplnmage (w•ter) iswell known, but females are also much brighter yellow in summerthan in winter.Right: adult female Lawrence's Goldfinch in [Tesh plumage (winter). The bright yellow in the wings should be enough to distinguishthis species from the uther• however,many American Goldfinches infall andw•ter havewing-bars of deepgolden huff. Femalesare molting at the same time. not the flightfeathers of the wings standthe phenomenonin other, They do not changecolors as obvi- andtail. Then in fall,they go through moresubtle, species. ouslyas the males, but thereis a dis- a completeprebasic molt, replacing Birdersin the west may look at tinct difference between their brown alltheir feathers, induding the flight goldfinchesa bit morecarefully, if and graybasic plumage and their feathers.(This gives them more strik- only becausethere are three species more yellow and greenalternate ingly patternedwings in winter, there.The LesserGoldfinch (C. psal- plumageof summer. becausethe wing feathers are freshet tria) is actuallyfar morewidespread Thepattern of moltin thisspecies then.) The dear differencebetween than the American Goldfinch, since issimilar to thatof manyother birds. their summer and winter colors itsrange extends south to Peru.North The spring(prealternate) molt of makesthe molt noticeable. Watching ofthe Mexican border, though, it isa goldfinchesis only partial;they for signs of molt in American western/southwesternspecialty. replacehead and body feathers, but Goldfincheswill helpyou to under- In thenorthern part of itsrange in F'•gure3. Female-plumagedLesser Goldfinches, to showindividual and seasonal variation. Luff: typical adult female in •resh plumage (winter). Second f•omleft: somefemales are atyp'•ally pale even in •resh plumage. Their undertail coverts may be so pale asto appear almost white, thus nullifying one of the bestfield madcs for distinguishing Lesser f•om American. Tall pattern (see F'•gure 5) remainsa consistentdistinction for these problem birds. Third f•omleft: a femaleLesser in mid-summer, invery worn plumage. Such birds can look excepfiofialy dull, and may be identifiable mainly by their small size, hillshape, and characteristic callnote• Right: a youngbird, not long out of the nest.In this very •resh juvenal plumage, the wing-hars are broad and well- defined.The LesserGoldfinch has a longbreeding •a•, in warmerregions, so juveniles may be seen over much of the year. l•0-AmericanBirds, Spring 1993 F'•ure4. Adultmale Lesser Goldfinches vary from green-backed to black-backedforms in differentparts of the species' wide range. Left:. typical green- backedform, found over most of the western part of the range within the United States. Right: typical black-backed form, found farther east and south. Cen- ter:.an intermediate bird, of a typeoften found in Colorado and New Mexico. See text for comments on the taxonomic status of these •ffferent-looking birds. the interior, from Colorado and butnot a well-defined squarish patch beeither black or green (or a mixture northern New Mexico to northeast- of white. of thetwo colors). Many birders have ern California, the LesserGoldfinch Tail patternis alsoan important the unfortunateidea that theywill is mainlya summerresident. Birders distinction,asshown in Figure5- The seemmore erudite if theyslap sub- tryingto find themthere in winter white on the American Goldfinch specificnames on thebirds they see, (e.g., for ChristmasBird Counts) extendsout to the tips of the tail and thesegoldfinch forms make mayrun afoulof thegreat variation feathers. On the Lesser Goldfinch, tempting targets.So the green- in American Goldfinches, which thewhite (if present)is centeredon backed males found from Arizona floodinto these same areas during the and Utah west to the Pacific Coast are cold months. often called hesperophilus,while Color of the undertail coverts-- The LesserGold- black-backed birds found farther east white in American, yellow in areoften calledpsaltria. However, the Lesser is usuallya suffidentfield finch shows less sea- situationis not reallythat simple. In mark for separatingthem. Some sonal variation than the Colorado and New Mexico, at least, Lessersare very pale, however, and blackback color may represent only a someAmericans can look tinged with American Goldfinch. colormorph. Many malesin that yellowunder the tail (espedallyin regionare green-backed, and many low-anglesunlight near sunrise or others turn out to have a mixture of sunset),so it's unwiseto rely com- eachtail feather, and the rip of the tail blackand green if theyare observed pletelyon this one item. is darlc This difference can be seen dosely.Furthermore, black-backed Wing patternprovides an addi- evenon birdsgoing away from you, malescrop up occasionallyfarther tionaldue. In winter,Lessers usually withtheir tails spread in flight.Some west,even as part of the nesting pop- havenarrower wing bars than Amerio female Lessersshow no white in the ulation in central Arizona. A differ- can Goldfinches. Lessersalso show a tail at all, and thislack of pattern ent race may be involvedfarther squarishwhite patch in thewing (at helpsto emphasizethe tiny,short- south, where all the males are black- thebase of the primaries), in thesame tailed structure of the bird. backed,but it's pointlessfor field positionas the well-knownwing The Lesser Goldfinch shows less observersto apply subspecific names mark of the Black-throated Blue seasonalvariation than the American to anyLesser Goldfinches seen in the Warbler (Dendroica caerulescens).Goldfinch. (Its molt is justas exten- United States. Thiswhite square can be obscure in sive, but its summer and winter If the American Goldfinch is one someyoung females. The American plumagesare colored the same.) But of our best-knownbirds, its relative, Goldfinchhas white edgings to the geographicvariation is noticeablein the Lawrence'sGoldfinch ((7. /aw- primariesin the samegeneral area, males:The nape and upper back may rencei),is amongthe mostpoorly Volume 47, Number Figure5. Tailpatterns ofgoldfinches, asseen from below. Top row, left: Adult male American Goldfinch. Second from left: adnlt female American Goldfinch. Thewhite spots on the inner webs of the outer tail feathers extend all the way to the tips. Top row, third from left: ndnlt male Lowrence's Goldfinch. Ii!ghb. femaleLawrence's GoloTmch with minimal white. Tail pattern is similar to thut of Lesser Goldfinch but seems to befer lessvariable. Bottom • Lesser Goldfinch,three va•dons. The one ut left is typical of adnlt males. Females often have a patternlike thut shown ut center, but many (especially yonnger birds?)show no white in the tail ut all. known.This elegantand enigmatic The Lawrence'sGoldfinch rarely ofa different goldfinch species.

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