Last year, one of my friends said to me, “I can’t wait for the goldfinches to come back, they’re my favorite bird!”
“What do you mean?” I asked.
“I see them all summer, then one day they’re gone! After a few months they suddenly show up again!” she said.
This confused me for a minute, since we’re located in upstate SC where American Goldfinches live year round. Then it hit me, she doesn’t realize they change color in the fall! I assured her the goldfinches were very much still around, in fact I had been feeding quite a few all winter long. Then I explained how they go from bright yellow to a drab olive/gray-brown in winter. She was amazed! She thought all those little winter birds at her feeders were another kind of finch altogether.
Another friend on Seabrook Island said this week that her winter goldfinches looked as though they were getting brighter, and asked if any of us had noticed ours changing color. That prompted me to start paying closer attention to them. It also made me wonder about the timing of their molt, so I did what everyone does. I asked Google.
Sibley Guide has this to say: “Beginning in September, and continuing for six to eight weeks, American Goldfinch molt all of their feathers, ending up with a completely new and pristine set of feathers (and drab colors) as they head into the winter. In the spring, as they grow new body feathers the males especially transform into bright yellow breeding plumage, but the wing and tail feathers remain from the previous fall. As these wing feathers get older the pale buff edges fade to white and disintegrate, so that by the end of the summer the wings look essentially all black. And in September another complete molt begins.”
Those are big changes throughout the year! If you’d like to see the gradual change, this website also has an interactive image with slider so you can see their molting process month by month.
So check it out, and let us know if you’re starting to see color changes in the goldfinches at your feeder.
Source: Sibleyguide.com
Submitted by: Gina Sanders
Photos by: Gina Sanders