Goldfinches
Birds of the Month - July 2008
The Thistle Bird
The American Goldfinch is a bird of many aliases: wild canary, yellowbird, lettuce bird, and thistle bird, just to name a few. Which name a person uses often reveals a lot about their interests and hobbies.
Serious birders call it by its “official” name of American Goldfinch. Ask a gardening enthusiast and you might hear the name “lettuce bird” due to the bird’s practice of nibbling at the tender young leaves of this vegetable. Most causal birdwatchers simply use the term “wild canary” because its magnificent yellow and black coloration remind them of a pet store canary.
A rarely used, but debatably more accurate name, is “thistle bird.” It has long been known that thistle plants and goldfinch are almost inseparable, and even its genus name, Caruelis, is from the Latin word carduus, meaning “thistle.”
Goldfinches rely heavily on thistle plants as a source of food and for nest-building materials. So much so, that during a research study in Michigan that observed over 250 nests, no nest was ever found more than 300 yards away from an abundant supply of thistle seed.
Goldfinches delay the start of their nesting behavior until the thistles come into bloom so they can anticipate an abundant and reliable supply of seeds for their young. Look for those blossoms any day now, and keep your WBU finch feeder filled with fresh Nyjer® (thistle) seed to welcome the nesting “thistle birds” to your backyard refuge.