They feed from a huge variety of plants, including native thistle, dandelions and hemp. Goldfinches spend much of their day eating, so they can’t be fussy about the color of the plant. They like seed producing flowers, regardless of the color. However, I really doubt if the yellow on the sunflower has any kind of special appeal to these finches. We don’t need to get lawyers involved over petal eating. But if you are convinced that the birds were definitely eating the petals, I’m not going to argue. I suspect the finches were merely removing the petals in order to gain better access to the seeds. In your letter you mentioned something about seeing goldfinches eating the petals of sunflowers. And by the way, it wouldn’t kill you to rake that up once in a while. The stuff on the ground is nothing but empty shells. The “wasted” seed is actually the black outer shell of the thistle. Many people complain to me about the wasted thistle (niger) seed that they see on the ground beneath their feeders. Then, using their perfectly designed beaks, they snap open the shell to extract the food from within. The acrobatic finches can easily cling to the flower heads and pluck out the seeds. The American Goldfinch is an extremely agile bird and has no trouble landing on any flower that will support its massive weight of half an ounce. As the days pass it is the baby finches that grow big and strong, while the cowbird slowly becomes a member of the compost generation. Even though it gets plenty of food, the much larger cowbird chick can’t handle the all-vegetarian diet. However, if a young cowbird hatches out in goldfinch nest, the joke is on the cowbird. She then flies off and lets the host bird feed and clothe her rotten kids, often at the expense of the host bird’s own nestlings. For those of you who don’t know, the cowbird female lays her eggs in the nests of other birds. Occasionally, a goldfinch will ingest a bug or two, but that usually is just some insect with tough luck that happened to get in the way.īecause goldfinch parents rarely feed their young birds anything but seeds, they have prevented their families from being victimized by parasitic cowbirds. Their kids had better like seeds, too, because that’s all they are going to get. They wake up in the morning looking for seeds and go to bed dreaming about them. Goldfinches, on the other hand, aren’t into the bug scene at all. The protein rich insects help the baby birds grow faster. Mom and pop cardinals feed their nestlings bugs. But cardinals will also look for insects, especially during the nesting season. Of course lots of birds, including cardinals, for example, eat lots of seeds. The color of the package, whether it be a feeder or a flower, doesn’t make a bit of difference. But in my experience the color yellow doesn’t seem to help attract more customers and the finches couldn’t care less. Bird feeder manufacturers often like to play upon the color theme by making finch feeders yellow. His jet-black forehead and wings only make the yellow on the rest of him standout even more. It’s hard to imagine a brighter yellow bird than a breeding male goldfinch. The American Goldfinch is certainly all about the color yellow. Next to cats, he’s my least favorite person. Am I right? I hope so, because I’m not really an expert on the Pilgrims, and I have never been a big fan of Frank Perdue and his bird-eating ways. After sorting through your note I believe you are wondering if yellow flowers have a specific appeal to goldfinches. I’ve read your note over and over, not only to better understand your question, but I enjoy rereading about how you like our column. I got the goldfinch part okay, but you lost me when you wrote about Frank Perdue and making butter at Plimouth Plantation. However, as nice as your note was, I had a little trouble sorting out your question. I like the idea of getting in good with the Okies. I’m glad you enjoy our column and sent our book off to your friends in Oklahoma. Thank you for that very friendly and supportive letter. Did the Pilgrims and Frank Perdue learn from goldfinches? Why this strange choice of colorful food? I’ve seen goldfinches eating the petals of sunflowers and yellow cosmos. I also remember that Frank Perdue gave his chickens marigold petals. On a trip to Plimouth Plantation, I was told that the Pilgrims added marigold petals to butter to enhance the color. I enjoy reading your weekly column and have sent your book to friends in Oklahoma.
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