From Opus

Carduelis tristis

Photo by Gene
Photo taken: Illinois

[edit] Identification

4 1/2-5" (11-13 cm).
Smaller than a sparrow.

[edit] Breeding male

• Bright yellow with a white rump
• Black forehead
• White edges on black wings and tail
• Yellow at bend of wing.

[edit] Female and winter male

• Duller and grayer with black wings and tail
• White wing bars.

Undulating flight

[edit] Distribution

Breeds from southern British Columbia east to Newfoundland and south to California, Utah, southern Colorado, central Oklahoma, Arkansas, and Carolinas. Winters in much of United States.

[edit] Taxonomy

One nominal subspecies, C t tristis.

[edit] Habitat

Brushy thickets, weedy grasslands, and nearby trees.

[edit] Behaviour

Travels in flocks.

4 or 5 pale blue eggs are laid in a well-made cup of grass, bark strips, and plant down, placed in the upright fork of a small sapling or a shrub. Nests later in summer than other songbirds making it possible to use thistle down in constructing nests.

[edit] Vocalisation

Bright "per-chick-o-ree", also rendered as "potato-chips", delivered in flight and coinciding with each undulation.

[edit] External Links