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Mystery Finch (1 Viewer)
- Thread starter mipettin
- Start date
It's a Greenfinch - a bit of a dull looking female I think.
Birdspotter
Well-known member
mmm funny I cant seem to find any plumage characters of female Goldfinch in any of my books or thoughts for that matter.mipettin said:
A stumped Birdspotter !!
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Birdspotter
I sometimes use the RSPB site to look up birds - thing is they only have a male Goldfinch and a male Goldfinch in their gallery. The reason I didn't think it was a Greenfinch is that I have a greenfinch pair in the garden regularly - the male is a brilliant green the female is a drab green and looks nothing like this bird! Sometimes they feed together - though the male normally feeds on the ground under the shrubs while the female eats peanuts of the feeder. I also think I have another Greenfinch pair who like to take sunflower hearts out the other feeder. None of the above birds have brilliant feather detail like this one - so is this a young first winter bird? Also what does a female Goldfinch look like?
Martin
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Birdspotter
I sometimes use the RSPB site to look up birds - thing is they only have a male Goldfinch and a male Goldfinch in their gallery. The reason I didn't think it was a Greenfinch is that I have a greenfinch pair in the garden regularly - the male is a brilliant green the female is a drab green and looks nothing like this bird! Sometimes they feed together - though the male normally feeds on the ground under the shrubs while the female eats peanuts of the feeder. I also think I have another Greenfinch pair who like to take sunflower hearts out the other feeder. None of the above birds have brilliant feather detail like this one - so is this a young first winter bird? Also what does a female Goldfinch look like?
Martin
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SimonC
Still listing - I'll capsize one day
Martin
Goldfinches do not show any sexual dimorphism - or at least none that is immediately noticable in the field. If I remember correctly, the red "face mask" is a slightly different shape on the edges between the sexes.........but i could've just dreamt that!
Also, I seem to remember reading that only male Goldies will feed on Teasel heads?..........or did i dream that one too!?!
Greenfinches do show great differences in plumage colours ranging from the extremely bright green males, down to really drab looking females. The thing to look for is the yellow in the tail and wings, as this should be the same in all the Greenies you encounter
HTH
Goldfinches do not show any sexual dimorphism - or at least none that is immediately noticable in the field. If I remember correctly, the red "face mask" is a slightly different shape on the edges between the sexes.........but i could've just dreamt that!
Also, I seem to remember reading that only male Goldies will feed on Teasel heads?..........or did i dream that one too!?!
Greenfinches do show great differences in plumage colours ranging from the extremely bright green males, down to really drab looking females. The thing to look for is the yellow in the tail and wings, as this should be the same in all the Greenies you encounter
HTH
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robinm and SimonC
You are not imagining things!
The RSPB site (www.rspb.org) describes the different bills in "Did you know"
Cheers
Martin
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robinm and SimonC
You are not imagining things!
The RSPB site (www.rspb.org) describes the different bills in "Did you know"
Cheers
Martin
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Lee Rogers
Well-known member
robinm said:
Robin,
I read that too, apparently the female Goldfinch's is slightly shorter, which means she can't feed in the same way as the male. This would account for why only half the Goldfinch in my garden feed on the Nyger seed from the feeder and the other half feed out of the "catch tray" or off the ground, even when there are unoccupied ports. Or they could just be really lazy!
Lee
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