the.com/goldfinch
a thistle-cracking acrobat that paints itself yellow only when it's time to impress
means A small, brightly colored finch known for its yellow plumage and its taste for thistle and other small seeds.
from A plain English compound, 'gold' + 'finch,' attested since Old English as 'goldfinc' — literally the gold-colored finch. 'Finch' itself is an ancient bird-name (Old English 'finc'), likely echoing the bird's chirping call, with cousins across the Germanic languages like German 'Fink.' So the name is exactly what it says: the finch that looks like it's dipped in gold.
- color shift
- Males molt drab in winter, blaze gold for summer
- strict diet
- Almost entirely seeds, even feeding chicks plant matter
- late nester
- Breeds in summer to match thistle seed season
- upside down
- Feeds dangling acrobatically from seedheads
- flight song
- Bounces through air calling 'po-ta-to-chip'
american goldfinch — bright yellow finch native to north america, official bird of iowa, new jersey, and washington state
european goldfinch — red-faced finch with black and white wings, common across europe and western asia
the goldfinch painting — 17th-century oil painting by johannes vermeer, stolen from mauritshuis museum in the hague in 1990