Ashley and Crippen Photographers, Toronto|Corporate Headshots/Executive Headshots 

Nature

The American Goldfinch is fairly common across most of North America, except in the far north. It is a very gregarious bird, and often forages in mixed flocks with other species. It breeds within the central and northern areas of its range, building a small, tightly-woven cup of grass and plant fibers lined with plant down, usually high above the ground in a bush or tree. It lays 3-6 plain blue-white eggs., which are incubated by the female alone for around two weeks; the young leave the nest to start fending for themselves around 12-17 days after they have hatched. The adult is a small, stocky bird with a short, forked tail, short, rounded wings and a relatively large bill. The breeding male is bright yellow with a black cap, a white rump and undertail coverts, a yellow shoulder, white bars on black wings, and white edges to black upper tail feathers. The female and winter birds are a dull olive above and yellow below, with white undertail coverts and no black cap. The juvenile bird is brownish overall, with dark wings and tail. The American Goldfinch mainly eats seeds-especially thistle seeds-but it will also take small insects and berries. The nestlings are fed on seeds that have been shelled and partly predigested by the parent birds.