The Goldfinch has a bright red face, yellow wing patch and pointed beak which is longer in the male than the female. They feed on alder, birch, thistle and dandelion seeds while the male’s longer beak also enables him to extract the seeds of the teasel. In April the female builds a cup-shaped nest using moss, grass and lichen which she lines with wool and plant down. It is usually towards the end of a branch in a tree (making it more difficult to get to by predators) or in a bush. She lays 3 – 7 eggs and has 2 or sometimes 3 clutches in a season. She incubates the eggs alone then both parents feed the nestlings regurgitating seeds and small insects such as aphids. Outside the breeding season, goldfinches roam in flocks in search of food with groups of 100 birds being quite common. Some of our breeding birds overwinter in France and Spain although it has been discovered that more females do this than males. The life span is approximately 2 years.
Did You Know?
- The collective name for goldfinches, a charm, is derived from the old English c’irm, describing the birds’ twittering song.
- Other names for a goldfinch include thistle finch, goldie, gold linnet, redcap and King Harry
- Goldfinches were so popular as cage birds in Victorian Britain (in 1860 it is thought 132,000 were taken at Worthing in Sussex alone) that it caused the population to crash.
- Goldfinches frequently appear in medieval paintings of the Madonna and Child, reflecting the finch as a symbol of fertility and resurrection.
- Goldfinches are now found in almost five times as many gardens as they were 16 years ago. This may be because natural resources are in a steady decline and more gardens are offering their favourite high energy foods: niger seeds and sunflower hearts.