American Goldfinch plumage

Starting this morning and going well into the afternoon, the American Goldfinches at my feeders were extremely vocal. I would go so far as to call them raucous, an adjective normally reserved for the Blue Jay. I thought they sounded noisy from inside the house, but once I got outside, it was almost deafening. This is no exaggeration! It was similar to being near a pond full of spring peepers turned up to 11, but not quite as high-pitched. I'm not sure what had them going, but their loud vocalizations inspired me to post some pictures that I haven't gotten around to sharing.

I've been watching the goldfinches at my feeders this season with great interest. They are always one of the most dominant species at the feeder in terms of overall numbers, so I guess it shouldn't be too surprising that I've observed some interesting-looking birds as they come in to dine.

We'll start off looking at some "normal" goldfinches. Here we have 4 very piggy finches stuffing themselves on black-oil sunflower seeds. Unlike Titmice or Chickadees, for example, who have to hold seeds between their toes while they peck them open with their beaks, goldfinches are able to work the seeds open right in their mouth. This means they can just sit on the feeders and go from one seed to the next, while the Titmouse or Chickadee has to pick a single seed and then go fly off to find a suitable perch for holding the seed and pecking it open. Go back and get another seed, fly off to suitable perch, peck open - repeat over and over. What I'm getting at with this is that the goldfinches can be very dominating at the feeders because they don't have to give up their seat at the table every time they go for a new seed. Therefore, the tube feeders tend to be full of only goldfinches a lot of the time.

Anyway, back to the plumage. Like I said, these are "normal"-looking birds in their non-breeding plumage. I'm still working on getting males and females differentiated, which is a little tricky during the winter. I'm pretty sure there's at least one male in the photo above(top right), and I'm basing that on the presence of the yellow "shoulder patch." The others I'm not entirely sure about.

I do feel pretty confident that this is a female, though. The girls, unfortunately, are drab year-round. They molt into slightly perkier feathers for breeding season, but not much. Even the black and white in their wings is kind of dingy-looking, another hint at the sex of the bird.

Here's another female. Drab, perhaps, but still pretty darn cute.

In this aerial ballet I think I see all boys. You'll notice the bird at top center has some black markings on his forehead - a definite field marking of a male. Also, I see more yellow "shoulder patches" on the other two.

This bird really caught me off-guard. First, it's definitely a male - bright yellow all over, and look how crisp the black and white coloring is in the wings and tail. Also, there's the full black cap of a male. There is one problem though: this is bordering on breeding plumage, and this photo was taken on December 4th. What the...????? This is a real head-scratcher for me. Why isn't he in more drab non-breeding plumage? Did he not molt completely in the fall? Is his internal clock off? And why is his beak still dark (it would normally be almost orange during breeding season) - why doesn't it match with what his feathers are showing me?


Here's another series of photos of a similar situation, taken on February 13th. Is it the same bird? What are the chances that there's more than one male in almost full-on breeding plumage hanging around? I saw a similar bird at the feeders today (March 6th). I would have to think it's the same bird on all 3 occasions.


Now we start getting into some of the odd plumage variations I have seen this season. I know that American Goldfinches can look quite patchy and odd when they are going through a molt, but I don't have any reason to believe that any of the remaining photos in this post illustrate molting, simply based on the time of year and the isolation of the patterning. The bird above has an odd white patterning on its head, and also has a pink beak (beak should be dark this time of year).

Here's some more strange patterning on the head, but I see a dark beak, so it can't be the same bird as "pink beak" (both photos were taken on the same day).

Here's my final example of funky plumage patterning on the head - the beak is a mix of pink and dark and there's certainly something odd about the coloring on the head.
The first thing that came to mind when I saw these birds were some terms that I have read over the years: leucistic and piebald. I almost hesitate to mention the terms, though, simply because my understanding of them is very poor, and it would seem that there's not much good information about the terms online, either. All I know is that these are terms used to describe genetic abnormalities that affect pigmentation in animals (not limited just to birds). Cornell has a page that tries to explain some of the terms, but I came away from it still quite confused. The correct use of these terms is even a subject of great contention to some (see a vet's take on it here). If there's anyone out there who can explain all of this to me in plain English, I would love to be enlightened!

I bring all of this up to illustrate that all is not so cut and dry in the world of birding (as if you thought it was!), and also to show that there are always interesting and anomalous things to be on the lookout for, even at our backyard feeders.

Luckily, goldfinches are pretty docile birds in the hand, allowing for good looks at their feathers up close, thus leading to a better understanding of their age and gender. But that's a story for another post...

Feathers for a Friday

A little over a month ago I shared with you some photos of a pair of feathers affixed to a tree branch.


Much to my surprise, those feathers are still tenaciously hanging on to that branch, even after numerous bouts of high winds. I guess when a feather gets stuck on something, it's there to stay.

I found some other feathers recently, again stuck to tree branches.






I believe these to be feathers from a Dark-Eyed Junco, but if there's someone out there who knows their feathers, please school me.

This feather looks like it's been around for a while. It seems like it's lost most of it's structural integrity.


I wonder what other feathers I might find before the trees start to leaf out?

Gearing up

Holiday activities in December for me are about making things. Mostly making food (baked goods), and sometimes gifts, but also making the holiday cards. Right now I'm in the several-day process of making the cards. I'm also in the planning stages of making a Yule Log for our office holiday party, which is in 2 weeks. As a result, I don't know how much posting I'll be doing in the next few days.

I do have to share some cool feather photos I snagged over this past weekend, though. I was sitting outside on the deck Saturday evening, waiting for the Cardinals and Sparrows to come in for their dusk feeding, when I saw these little feathers clinging to a branch. The sun was setting and casting a spectacular light on them, so I ignored the birds for a bit and focused on these feathers. I don't know what caused them to be there, just hanging on the branch like that, fluttering delicately in the breeze. I did notice some other similarly-size feathers on the ground below, so maybe a hawk dove in at some point during the day and stole one of my birdies away. Not sure who the feathers belonged to. Based on size and coloration, I would guess Chickadee. If someone out there is good with feather ID, please give me your opinion.

I was also able to grab a shot of Mr. Downy munching on some suet.

Switching gears.... Here's the dining room table, which is acting as my card-making station.

I started making my own Christmas cards about 8 years ago, and I've been doing it every year since. Most years it involves rubber stamping to some degree, like this year. I was able to find a cool Cardinal stamp this year!

And this, my friends, is my bible of just about all things culinary. It's not listed as one of my favorite books in my profile for nothing!

Yes, I spent a good 45 minutes this evening studying the Joy to understand what all is going to be involved in making this Yule Log for the party. In case you're unaware, a Yule Log (Bûche de Noël) is a traditional French cake served at Christmas time, and it is made to resemble a log. It involves a jelly-rolled sponge cake and buttercream filling and frosting (which I have decided to replace with a whipped ganache filling/frosting). I've never made sponge cake before, and it doesn't sound terribly hard, but I will be making a practice cake this weekend. The only other jelly-roll style cake I have ever made was a pumpkin roll. Unfortunately my pumpkin rolls always crack, but they were not made of sponge cake, so hopefully things will go better this time around.

I will say this - the Bûche de Noël recipe in The Joy of Cooking involves many different pages of the book, but once I read through it a couple of times, I decided that it appears more complicated than it really is. Besides, I have also made the Boston Cream Pie recipe that is in the Joy, and it also involves flipping to mulitple pages for different component item recipes, and that always comes out just fine. I'm up for the challenge. Wish me luck!