Yellow for Spring.......

The male goldfinch changes feather colors once it starts to warm up in the spring. The drab brown is gone and the new new yellow feathers have grown in to show off their look. There is enough older timber in my new neighborhood that the house finch and goldfinch are plentiful.

The shadow of the bar which holds the sock creates a dark band on the back of the bird.  It took three days or more before the birds really became interested in the new sock of seed.

My earliest memories of the goldfinch were of them along the timber areas of southern Iowa. The prairie-like fields on our farm were there because the land was too rough for my dad to cultivate into a corn field.  So the natural grasses and prairie plants would fill up the field and the goldfinches would dart around finding seeds to eat. In the fall the thistle plants would be loaded with birds.