The goldfinches were very late with their housekeeping. In July they were still gathering strings and cotton for their nesting. They are just as polite and gentle as the chickadees. Their name fits so well that anybody who sees these yellow birds, just like canaries with black wings and tail, ought to know them at once. Their song usually starts with “Sweet sweet sweet,” and the rest is a regular canary song. They are sometimes called wild canaries.
EACH LITTLE GOLDFINCH CALLED AS LOUD AS HE COULD
The young goldfinches loved to sit on the edge of their nest as soon as they were old enough. As they sat there they chattered to each other, “Ze bebe, ze bebe,” and fluttered their wings a great deal. When I found their nest I was surprised that I hadn’t seen it before; it was low on a buckeye.
When the young goldfinches left their nest it seemed as if they wanted to get acquainted with people. They came down on the lowest branches, and quite near the house. One alighted on the clothesline. Whenever Father or Mother came with food there was the greatest fluttering of wings. Each one called, “Ze bebe ze bebe,” as loud as he could, and opened wide his bill to catch what the parents tossed or squirted out to him. It was no living, squirming thing, but a pulpy mass.
The young were yellow in front, olive on the back, and they had black wings with brown and white bars. The black tail was edged with white.
Goldfinches like sunflower seeds. But the main reason why they are so useful and so well liked is that they eat large quantities of thistle seeds and dandelion seeds.
When cold weather came the parent goldfinches were no longer so beautifully yellow, for they had put on their gray autumn coats.
A YOUNG GOLDFINCH ALIGHTED ON THE CLOTHESLINE