Male European Goldfinch (Carduelis carduelis)
As I have readily admitted in the past that I am a bird-nerd, I will also admit that I stopped my car on the road and put on my flashing hazard lights when I spotted this guy in the grass hopping around with some sparrows. This is another bird that may be common where you are (if you live in Europe or the UK), but it was a first spotting for me. These are beautiful birds that I have previously only seen in photos. I was pretty stoked!
European Goldfinch in flight
I spotted this bird yesterday, April 21 2013 in Mt Pleasant WI Unbelieveable!
ReplyDeleteI was inclined to doubt your Wisconsin sighting, thinking you must have confused it with some other species, but after a little Googling, I learned that a European goldfinch was spotted in Dearborn, MI in 2003. It turns out this is a popular cage bird species, and there have been a large number of spottings of them in the western Great Lakes since then, and breeding populations are known in Illinois and Wisconsin.
DeleteThe Rouge River Bird Observatory at U.Michigan-Dearborn is asking for the public's help in compiling sighting of these and several other European species in the western Great Lakes, upper Midwest, and Ontario. You might want to consider reporting your sighting here:
http://www.rrbo.org/conservation-science/research/bird-population-monitoring/eurobirds/
(There is some interesting information at that link as well.)
SLBinVA
I had a pair of them on my feeder in Bristol, WI yesterday. Took me till today to identify. Not in any North American bird books. :)
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