Animal
American goldfinch
The American goldfinch is a tiny bird that eats seeds. In summer the father bird is bright yellow and black.
The American goldfinch is a small finch that eats almost nothing but seeds. In summer the male is bright lemon yellow with a black cap and black wings, and in winter both males and females turn a soft olive brown. Goldfinches wait until late summer to build their nests.
Spinus tristis is a small North American finch that is almost entirely a seed-eater, even feeding its chicks on seeds. It changes its body feathers twice a year, nests unusually late in the summer, and is listed as Least Concern, although survey data show a slow decline.
Photo: Cephas, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Meet the American goldfinch
The American goldfinch is a tiny bird, about as big as a sparrow.
In summer the father bird is bright yellow, with black wings and a black cap. Goldfinches love to eat seeds. Press play to hear a real goldfinch call!
The American goldfinch is a small finch, about the size of a sparrow. In spring and summer the male is bright yellow with a black forehead, black wings and a black tail. The female is a duller yellow-green.
Goldfinches live across much of the United States and southern Canada, and many visit backyard feeders. Its sweet songs and bright colors have earned it the nickname wild canary. Press play to hear a real call of an American goldfinch.
Spinus tristis is a finch (family Fringillidae), formerly placed in the genus Carduelis. Adults are 11 to 13 centimeters long and weigh 11 to 20 grams. Males and females differ: the breeding male is bright yellow with a black forehead, wings and tail; the breeding female is a duller yellow-green; in winter both are yellowish-brown to gray, with bold pale wing-bars.
A Minnesota Department of Natural Resources profile links the nickname wild canary to the males' lilting songs and bright plumage. The recording on this step is a call of an American goldfinch from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
Quick facts
- Group
- Bird
- Length
- 0.11 to 0.13 m
- Wingspan
- 0.2 to 0.22 m
- Weight
- 0.01 to 0.02 kg
- Lifespan in the wild
- 3 to 6 years
Where it lives
Goldfinches live in North America.
They like fields full of weeds and flowers, roadsides and gardens. In winter, many move a little farther south.
American goldfinches live in North America. They raise their families from Newfoundland west to British Columbia in Canada, and south across much of the United States. In many parts of the United States and southern Canada they stay all year.
They like open, weedy places with a few trees and bushes: fields, meadows, roadsides, the edges of woods, orchards and backyards. In winter some move south, as far as Mexico.
The IUCN's 2025 global assessment describes a breeding range from southwestern Newfoundland west to coastal British Columbia, and south to North Carolina, central Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, northern Texas, Colorado, Utah, Nevada and northern California. Breeding and non-breeding ranges overlap, and the species is resident across large parts of the United States and southern Canada; populations generally shift south in winter, into Mexico.
Habitats include weedy and grassy fields, floodplains, farmland, vineyards, orchards, gardens, forest edges and willow plantations. Migration is irregular: Audubon notes that more birds stay in the north in winters with a good food supply, and that they migrate mostly by day.
Continent
Its habitat
Where can you find this animal?
- Lives here naturally · Countries and seas named by a scientific source
- Sightings recorded · Records of wild sightings (GBIF)
- Visits for part of the year · Countries and seas named by a scientific source
Lives here naturally · Countries and seas named by a scientific source
Weedy fields, meadows, roadsides, woodland edges, orchards and gardens across much of the United States and southern Canada, where many goldfinches live all year.
Places: United States and Canada.
Source: iucn-red-list · checked October 2026
Sightings recorded · Records of wild sightings (GBIF)
Counts of GBIF records of wild observations (human and machine) and preserved specimens. Records include introduced populations, vagrants, escaped or released animals and misidentifications, so a country with records is not necessarily part of the native range.
Wild sightings have been recorded in United States, Canada, Mexico, UK, Colombia, Belgium, Belize, France and 5 more places.
Source: gbif · checked October 2026
Visits for part of the year · Countries and seas named by a scientific source
Mexico, where goldfinches spend the winter when populations shift south.
Places: Mexico.
Source: iucn-red-list · checked October 2026
Range maps show where scientists say an animal lives, often country by country. An animal may live in only part of a country shown, and sightings records can include animals that wandered far from home.
What it eats
Goldfinches eat seeds.
They like seeds from thistles, sunflowers and other flowers. They hang on the flower heads to pick the seeds out.
Goldfinches eat mostly seeds, especially from plants in the daisy family, such as thistles, sunflowers and coneflowers, plus weeds, grasses and trees like elm, birch and alder. They eat a few insects in summer, but not many.
They are acrobats at mealtime, climbing and hanging on swaying plants to reach the seeds. Outside the nesting season they usually feed in flocks, and they often come to feeders for small seeds.
The diet is mostly seeds, especially of the composite (daisy) family, along with weed and grass seeds and small tree seeds such as elm, birch and alder. Goldfinches also eat buds, the bark of young twigs and maple sap, and take insects only to a limited extent in summer (Audubon).
This seed diet extends even to the chicks, which are fed regurgitated food made mostly of seeds. Animal Diversity Web adds that brown-headed cowbirds sometimes lay their eggs in goldfinch nests: a parasitism rate of 9.4 percent was reported in 1979, yet no cowbird chick was found to have left a goldfinch nest successfully.
Did you know?
Baby goldfinches eat seeds, not bugs.
Goldfinch parents feed their chicks a mush made mostly of seeds, which they bring up from their own stomachs.
Young goldfinches are fed regurgitated food made mostly of seeds (Audubon); insects play only a small part in the diet even in summer.
Two outfits a year
Goldfinches change their feathers two times a year.
In spring, the father turns bright yellow. In fall, all goldfinches turn a soft brown for winter. Their short, pointed beaks crack open seeds.
The American goldfinch changes its body feathers twice a year. This is called molting. In spring, males grow bright yellow feathers. In autumn, after nesting is over, every goldfinch molts again into drab olive-gray or brown for the winter.
In all seasons, look for the black wings with white or buff bars and the short, cone-shaped bill, which is a seed-cracking tool. The fall molt gives each bird more than a thousand extra feathers for the cold months.
Unusually among finches, the American goldfinch molts its body plumage twice a year: in spring, when males regain bright yellow plumage, and in autumn after the late breeding season, when both sexes become drab olive-gray. According to the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources, the autumn molt leaves each bird with more than a thousand extra feathers that help it withstand winter cold and wind.
The conical, pointed bill suits a granivorous diet. Wings are black with bold white or buff wing-bars, the tail is black and notched, and in summer males have glossy black foreheads. Weight is only 11 to 20 grams.
A late summer family
Goldfinches build nests in the middle of summer.
The mother makes a tiny cup nest in a bush. She lays four to six pale blue eggs. Mom and dad both feed the babies.
Most songbirds nest in spring, but goldfinches wait until July and August, when lots of plants are full of ripe seeds. The female builds a small, tight cup nest from plant fibers, spider webs and fluffy thistle down, usually in a fork of a bush or small tree. The nest is so well made it can even hold water!
She lays 4 to 6 pale bluish-white eggs and keeps them warm for about 12 to 14 days, while the male brings her food. Both parents feed the chicks, which leave the nest about 11 to 17 days after hatching.
Nesting begins late: in many areas most activity is in July and August (Audubon). The Minnesota DNR says goldfinches wait for the late-summer abundance of maturing seeds; Audubon is more cautious, saying the late timing is 'perhaps' to match the peak seed supply for feeding the young.
The female builds a compact cup of plant fibers, spider silk and plant down, usually less than about 9 meters up in a fork of a deciduous shrub or tree. Clutches are 4 to 6 eggs (sometimes 2 to 7), incubated by the female alone for about 12 to 14 days while the male feeds her. At first the male brings food and the female passes it to the young; later the male may provide most of it. Young leave the nest 11 to 17 days after hatching.
Bouncy flights and potato chips
Goldfinches fly up and down, like a roller coaster.
As they fly, they make a happy little call. Some people think it sounds like 'po-ta-to-chip!'
Watch a goldfinch fly. It flaps a few times to rise, then folds its wings and dips down, again and again, so its path bounces like a roller coaster. As it flies it often calls 'per-chick-o-ree', which some people hear as 'po-ta-to-chip', one call for each bounce.
Goldfinches are social. Outside the nesting season they travel and feed in flocks, and in courtship a male flutters in a special display flight while singing.
Flight is undulating: a few wingbeats lift the bird, followed by a short descent on closed wings. Audubon describes the bright 'per-chick-o-ree' call, also rendered 'potato-chips', given in flight in time with each undulation. Animal Diversity Web lists six kinds of calls, including contact calls, threat and alarm calls, courtship calls and songs; contact calls are the most common.
Outside the breeding season goldfinches usually forage in flocks and do not defend territories, though they guard the nest while breeding. In courtship the male performs a fluttering flight display while singing. Pairs form in winter, according to Animal Diversity Web.
Did you know?
A goldfinch nest can be so tight it holds water.
A goldfinch nest is woven so tightly from plant fibers, spider webs and thistle down that it may even hold water.
Audubon notes that the female's compact cup of plant fibers, spider silk and plant down can be so well made that it may hold water.
A common bird to watch
There are lots of goldfinches.
But pet cats catch some of them. Some sprays that kill weeds and bugs can make them sick, too.
American goldfinches are common, and the IUCN lists them as Least Concern. There are about 44 million of them, but bird surveys show their numbers slowly going down.
Goldfinches did well when forests were cleared for farms, because they love open, weedy places. Today pet cats catch them, some sprays used on weeds and insects can poison them, and cars hit some of them. Saving riverside land and weedy, open places would help them.
The IUCN's 2025 global assessment lists Spinus tristis as Least Concern, with about 44 million birds (95 percent bounds 42 to 47 million; Partners in Flight 2020), including 14 million in the United States and 30 million in Canada. North American Breeding Bird Survey data show a decline of about 11 to 19 percent per ten years, not enough to approach a threatened category.
The species benefited from the clearing of forests for farmland and from settlement. Named threats are predation by domestic cats, poisoning by some herbicides and insecticides, less food in herbicide-treated fields, and collisions with vehicles, whose overall impact is unknown. The assessment recommends conserving river bottomlands, floodplains and open, early-successional habitat.
IUCN Red List
How is the american goldfinch doing in the wild?
- Least Concern (this animal)
- Near Threatened
- Vulnerable
- Endangered
- Critically Endangered
- Extinct in the Wild
- Extinct
Least Concern
Not at risk of disappearing from the wild right now.
See the IUCN Red List assessment · The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2021.3
Amazing facts
-
A goldfinch nest can be so tight it holds water.
A goldfinch nest is woven so tightly from plant fibers, spider webs and thistle down that it may even hold water.
Audubon notes that the female's compact cup of plant fibers, spider silk and plant down can be so well made that it may hold water.
-
Baby goldfinches eat seeds, not bugs.
Goldfinch parents feed their chicks a mush made mostly of seeds, which they bring up from their own stomachs.
Young goldfinches are fed regurgitated food made mostly of seeds (Audubon); insects play only a small part in the diet even in summer.
-
Goldfinches get lots of extra feathers for winter.
After the fall molt, each goldfinch has more than a thousand extra feathers to keep it warm in winter.
The Minnesota DNR reports that the autumn molt leaves each bird with over a thousand extra feathers to help it withstand winter cold and wind.
-
Goldfinches call while they fly up and down.
In flight, goldfinches call 'per-chick-o-ree', which some people hear as 'po-ta-to-chip', in time with each bounce.
The flight call, 'per-chick-o-ree' or 'potato-chips', is timed with each undulation of the bird's bounding flight.
Words to know
- finch
- a small songbird with a short, strong beak for eating seeds
- molt
- when a bird loses old feathers and grows new ones
- plumage
- all of a bird's feathers
- seed-eater
- an animal that eats mostly seeds (scientists say granivore)
- thistle down
- the soft, fluffy parachutes on thistle seeds
- undulating
- moving up and down in waves
Discovery challenge
-
What do goldfinches eat most?
What do American goldfinches eat most of the time?
What makes up most of the American goldfinch's diet?
- Fish
- Seeds
- Leaves
Show the answer
Seeds
Goldfinches eat seeds, like thistle and sunflower seeds.
They eat mostly seeds, especially from daisy-family plants like thistles and sunflowers, and only a few insects.
The diet is mostly seeds, especially of composite plants; insects are taken only to a limited extent in summer, and even chicks are fed seeds.
-
What color is a father goldfinch in summer?
What color is a male American goldfinch in summer?
Which describes a breeding male American goldfinch?
- Bright yellow with black wings
- All red
- Blue with a white belly
Show the answer
Bright yellow with black wings
He is bright yellow, with black wings and a black cap.
In spring he molts into bright yellow feathers, with a black forehead, black wings and a black tail.
Breeding males are bright yellow with black forehead, wings and tail; after the autumn molt they are drab like the females.
-
When do goldfinches build nests?
When do most American goldfinches build their nests?
When does most American goldfinch nesting take place?
- In winter
- In July and August
- In early spring
Show the answer
In July and August
They build nests in the middle of summer, when there are lots of seeds.
Goldfinches nest late, mostly in July and August, when many plants have ripe seeds.
Most nesting activity is in July and August, a timing Audubon says is perhaps linked with the late-summer peak in seed supply.
-
How many times a year do goldfinches change their feathers?
How many times a year does an American goldfinch molt its body feathers?
How many body molts does the American goldfinch have each year?
- Never
- Once
- Twice
Show the answer
Twice
Two times: once in spring and once in fall.
Twice: in spring, when males turn yellow, and in autumn, when all goldfinches turn drab for winter.
Two: a spring molt into breeding plumage and an autumn molt after breeding into winter plumage.
Places where you might see it
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Watch
Country
United States
The United States is a large country in North America made of 50 states, from icy Alaska to the warm islands of Hawaii. It has the Grand Canyon, the Mississippi River and Yellowstone, and about 342 million people live there.
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Watch
Country
Canada
Canada is the second-largest country in the world, stretching across the north of North America from the Atlantic to the Pacific and up into the Arctic. It has the Rocky Mountains, thousands of islands and about 42 million people, who speak English, French and many other languages.
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For parents & teachers
What children will learn
- Describe how the American goldfinch's feathers change between summer and winter, and name the molt.
- Explain how a seed diet shapes the goldfinch's bill and its late nesting season.
- Recognize the goldfinch's bouncing flight and flight call.
- Name some threats to goldfinches and simple ways people help them.
Recommended ages: 3 to 17 · About 12 minutes
Talk about it
- Why might a bird that eats seeds wait until late summer to raise its chicks?
- Why could it help a bird to be bright in summer and dull in winter?
- What could your school or garden grow to feed goldfinches?
Try at home or in class
- With a grown-up, leave a patch of sunflowers or coneflowers to go to seed in the fall and watch which birds come to eat.
- Draw a goldfinch twice, once in summer colors and once in winter colors, and label the parts that stay the same.
Key vocabulary: finch, molt, plumage, seed-eater, thistle down, undulating
Where these facts come from
- The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species , International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN terms of use (no redistribution of Red List data or range maps))
- GBIF Backbone Taxonomy and GBIF Occurrence Search , Global Biodiversity Information Facility (CC0 1.0 (backbone); occurrence counts are facts derived from records under CC0, CC BY and CC BY-NC)
- Spinus tristis (American Goldfinch), global Red List assessment 2025 , IUCN Red List of Threatened Species
- American Goldfinch, Audubon Field Guide , National Audubon Society
- Carduelis tristis (American goldfinch) , Animal Diversity Web, University of Michigan Museum of Zoology
- Young Naturalists species profile: American goldfinch (Minnesota Conservation Volunteer, March–April 2021) , Minnesota Department of Natural Resources
- Wikidata , Wikimedia Foundation (CC0 1.0)
- Wikimedia Commons , Wikimedia Foundation (Per file: Public domain, CC0, CC BY or CC BY-SA only (credited on each page))
Checked, not yet human-reviewed. Last updated October 27, 2026. Spotted a mistake? Tell us.