Goldfinches in spring

American Goldfinch Carduelis tristis

Today I was looking at my backyard birds and I noticed that the goldfinches were changing their winter plumage for their spring and summer look. In the winter their feathers are a drab yellow-green colour, as you can see on the back of this goldfinch in the picture. In the summer they are a bright yellow, and you can see these feathers starting to appear near the bird's face. On the top of its head the black cap feathers are just starting to appear. Soon this goldfinch will have a black cap that is as dark as the black on its wings. Here's a picture of a goldfinch in their full summer plumage. Note that the female and the juvenile do not have the bright yellow and black colouring of the males.

This picture is not as sharp as I would like. I did not use a flash (I think it would have scared the bird away), and I didn't get out my tripod. The shutter speed was just a little too slow to take a hand held photo. When I take a photo I always try to get the shutter speed up to at least 1/90th of a second, otherwise the picture usually turns out a bit blurry from camera shake. I think this one was around 1/50th of a second.

House finch Carpodacus mexicanus

My husband built me this new bird feeder this weekend. He was so pleased when the birds finally started visiting it. One day I'll do a post on the different types of bird feeders that I have in my yard.

After he built the feeder he became more interested in the birds and squirrels in our yard. Unfortunately, he is starting to become involved in the Squirrel Wars. It is a slippery slope to madness.