The Howland Picture Pages: American Goldfinch

Page by Royce
Last update: $Date: 2004/10/23 17:21:13 $ (UTC)

The American Goldfinch (Carduelis tristis) is an easily recognizable finch, common across the U.S. and southern Canada. Whether in treed areas, thickets of thistles or around your back yard niger seed feeder, a flash of bold yellow and black and characteristic po-ta-to-chip call heralds the arrival of a male Goldfinch in breeding plumage. Females and non-breeding males look similar, a green/olive/brown that is a much more drab echo of the trademark yellow coloration.

Resources where you can find out more:

• American Goldfinch profile at weaselhead.org
• American Goldfinch profile at CLO including sound sample
• American Goldfinch profile at the USGS Patuxent Bird Identification InfoCenter

	This American Goldfinch was photographed near Water Valley, Alberta on a summer morning, July 24, 2004. I wasn't especially close to the bird, so this isn't the kind of zoomed-way-in shot like the digiscoped ones below. But I liked the way the bird was sitting on a fallen tree limb almost exactly at the boundary between sunlight and shade. This shot was taken with a Canon EOS 10D + EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS USM lens, hand-held. EXIF 2.2 photo info:   320 x 349  true color Exposure time: 1/250 F-stop: 8.0 ISO speed: 200 Focal length: 400.0000 Exposure mode: Auto White balance: Auto Exposure bias: 0.0000 Canon focus mode: One-shot Canon contrast: Normal Canon saturation: 2 Canon sharpness: 2 Canon metering mode: Evaluative Canon exposure mode: Av-priority Camera make: Canon Camera model: Canon EOS 10D
	Here is a colorful male American Goldfinch enjoying a nice meal of thistle seeds -- a classic Goldfinch scene. This shot was taken July 12, 2003 near Bruce Lake, Alberta. This photo was taken with a digiscoping setup from a range of about 12m. It was one of my first decent, high-magnification photos of a small, normally flighty bird. EXIF 2.2 photo info:   320 x 529 true color Exposure time: 1/181.20 F-stop: 6.2 ISO speed: 100 Focal length: 15.8000 (plus Pentax PF-80EDA scope & William Optics DCL-28 eyepiece) Exposure mode: Auto White balance: Auto Exposure bias: 0.0000 Metering mode: Pattern Exposure program: Aperture priority Gain control: None Contrast: Normal Saturation: High Sharpness: Hard Camera make: NIKON Camera model: E4500
	Here is another shot of the above American Goldfinch. This photo was also taken with a digiscoping setup. EXIF 2.2 photo info:   320 x 543 true color Exposure time: 1/181.20 F-stop: 6.2 ISO speed: 100 Focal length: 15.8000 (plus Pentax PF-80EDA scope & William Optics DCL-28 eyepiece) Exposure mode: Auto White balance: Auto Exposure bias: 0.0000 Metering mode: Pattern Exposure program: Aperture priority Gain control: None Contrast: Normal Saturation: High Sharpness: Hard Camera make: NIKON Camera model: E4500

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