We found out something new in the last day or so and it’s that naturalist and author Stan Tekiela knows more about birds and other wild critters than we, at first, gave him credit for. We found his web site and we got a thorough answer to our question about why we don’t see more bright yellow American Goldfinch males feasting on our wild thistles in the back yard.
It turns out that the radiantly yellow goldfinch males molt their feathers in late winter. No kidding, we thought that wasn’t in his book. But it was in the section we never read. He published the first edition of his book Birds of Iowa Field Guide in 2000. He published the second edition in 2023.
Stan talked about the fact that all birds molt, including the goldfinch. The males tend to molt their bright yellow plumage in late summer to add more feathers for warmth in the upcoming winter. The feathers that grow back are drab olive-brown, which makes them resemble female or juveniles.
So, the goldfinch in the video we made could have been a female, a breeding male molting, or a juvenile.
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