Lesser Goldfinch

Carduelis psaltria
STANFORD LOCATIONS:

Common resident in various habitats virtually throughout campus. May forage in flocks during the nonbreeding season.
Nest
Location
Nest
Type
Eggs
Mating System
Dev.
Parental Care
Primary &
2ndary Diet
Foraging
Strategy
F?
I: 12 DAYS
ALTRICIAL
SHRUB
FORB
2 feet - 30 feet
F
4-5
(3-6)
MONOG?
F: ? DAYS
MF
INSECTS
BREEDING: Open habitats with scattered trees or brush, forest edge, fields, suburban areas. 2? broods.
DISPLAYS: Male song-flight display: spreads wings and tail widely and flaps wings rapidly. Courtship feeding.
NEST: Compactly woven of plant fibers, grass stems, bark, moss, lined with plant down. Male may help build in early stages.
EGGS: Pale blue or bluish-white, unmarked. 0.6" (15 mm).
DIET: Includes seeds of decid trees, forbs, and grass, also floral buds, berries. Young fed regurgitant of milky seed pulp. Fond of salt. Availability of water is important and strongly affects distribution, esp in dry seasons.
CONSERVATION: Winter resident, although e form (black-backed) reported partially migratory. Rare cowbird host.
NOTES: Late nester. Male feeds incubating female by regurgitation. Pair may stay together in winter. Highly gregarious during winter forming flocks of up to 400, occ associates with other goldfinches and siskins.
ESSAYS: Bird Biology and the Arts; Mixed-Species Flocking; Breeding Season; Courtship Feeding; Drinking.
REFERENCES: Bent, 1968.

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Except for Stanford Locations, the material in this species treatment is taken, with permission, from The Birder's Handbook (Paul Ehrlich, David Dobkin, & Darryl Wheye, Simon & Schuster, NY. 1988).