A Beautiful Bird - The American Goldfinch

The American Goldfinch (Carduelis tristis), also known as the Eastern Goldfinch and Wild Canary, is a small North American bird in the finch family. It is migratory, ranging from mid-Alberta to North Carolina during the breeding season, and from just south of the Canadian border to Mexico during the winter.
The only finch in its subfamily which undergoes a complete molt, the American Goldfinch displays sexual dimorphism in its coloration; the male is a vibrant yellow in the summer and an olive color during the winter months, while the female is a dull yellow-brown shade which brightens only slightly during the summer. The male displays brightly colored plumage during the breeding season to attract a mate.
The American Goldfinch is a granivore and adapted for the consumption of seedheads, with a conical beak to remove the seeds and agile feet to grip the stems of seedheads while feeding. It is a social bird, and will gather in large flocks while feeding and migrating. It may behave territorially during nest construction, but this aggression is short-lived. Its breeding season is tied to the peak of food supply, beginning in late July, which is relatively late in the year for a finch. This species is generally monogamous, and produces one brood each year.
Human activity has generally benefited the American Goldfinch. It is often found in residential areas, attracted to bird feeders which increase its survival rate in these areas. Deforestation also creates open meadow areas which are its preferred habitat.

Attract goldfinches as well as purple and house finches, pine siskins, and redpolls to your backyard with a nyjer seed bird feeder. You can choose one of the new wire mesh thistle feeders or one of the traditional thistle tube bird feeders. Then there’s always the old thistle sock bird feeder.
Nyjer, nyger, niger and thistle are all names used to refer to a small black seed cultivated in India and Ethiopia for over a thousand years. The true niger seed comes from the Guizotia abyssinica plant which is an annual herb grown for its edible oil and seed. It is NOT a type of thistle and is not a weed. As a matter of fact, it is now grown in the United States.

Niger seed probably got confused with thistle because goldfinches are known to eat thistle seed and use the downy
fluff from thistle plants for their nests. In an attempt to differentiate these two terms in the mind of the public, the Wild Bird Feeding Institute trademarked the name Nyjer in 1998. I don’t think that this was successful however because most people still think Nyjer seed is some kind of thistle and a noxious weed if allowed to grow.
When you purchase Nyjer seed, many companies still use the word thistle on the package which has the unintended result of confusing the public even more. This bird seed is imported from India and Ethiopia and by USDA regulations must be sterilized, not to keep the niger seed from spouting, but to keep other noxious weeds that are incidentally mixed in with the niger seed from sprouting. You can now get non-sterilized, American grown niger seed right here in the United States.
Because Nyjer seed is so expensive (over a dollar a pound in 2008) it is important to feed this seed in specially designed feeders. A good Nyjer seed bird feeder will allow several birds to feed at once without excess seed being wasted. The thistle tube bird feeders should be your first choice in my experience. Small slits in the polycarbonate tubes of these feeders only allow the finches to pull out one seed at a time. This limits the amount of wasted seed.
The Nyjer seed bird feeders made of wire mesh would be my second choice. These feeders allow flocking goldfinches to feed wherever they land, plus some hold large amounts of Nyjer seed. They are probably best used with a seed tray below to catch spilled seed.
A thistle sack bird feeder is an inexpensive choice as far as the initial cost of the feeder goes. Made of durable, fine mesh nylon, these feeders allow as many hungry finches to feed as can comfortably hang on the thistle sack. They now are available in black which makes the beautiful goldfinches really stand out. These mesh bags will cost you more in the long run than the other types of Nyjer seed bird feeders because of wasted seed.