American goldfinch

I won't run out of birds for the bird of the week any time soon, as the change in season is bringing all different kinds into our back yard.  Grackles and catbirds and woodpeckers, oh my!

For this week I've chosen a very showy new arrival, the American goldfinch.

I hadn't seen any of these until we put the feeder up, and even then they took their time arriving.  Apparently they can be seen in large flocks in the winter, but I don't know where.  Ah, well, they are here now - or at least they were.  After the rain we've had the last week or so they seem to have fled.  The weather did keep me from cleaning and restocking the feeder this week, though, so maybe they'll be back once they twig that there are free sunflower seeds again.  My field guide says they can be found anywhere there are thistles and sunflowers, which is promising.

When they are around they are really around, though.  There's room for four birds to pirch on our feeder at a time, and quite often I would look out and see goldfinches on all four perches, plus a couple clinging to the outside waiting their turn and also one or two sitting on the deck.  The seed disappeared like it was going out of fashion.  Here's three of them captured at it (they're quite flighty so it's a difficult thing to achieve).

Despite their size, about that of a sparrow, the black forehead makes them look quite tough, if you ask me.  That bottom one looks like he's about to ask if I have a problem in a menacing, Al Pacino kind of way.

But they do look very pretty and they definitely brighten up any day, even with their Hitchcockian tendencies.