Half-cap the Goldfinch

Look closely at this bird. Notice anything missing? This is a male American goldfinch in summer/breeding plumage. Bright yellow body, black wings and tail...

Here's a photo of a different male American goldfinch. Notice the prominent black cap? Now look again at the male above. And, when you're ready, scroll down to the third image in this post.



This is the male American goldfinch we call Half-cap. He's been around our farm for more than a year. We're not sure why he has just half a black cap. Was it some genetic abnormality? Is he half female? Was he injured on his head at some point in his life?

Whatever the reason, he seems to be otherwise normal and enjoys all the things goldfinches do—sing, chatter, visit the feeders, fly around the valley in noisy, undulating flocks.

It's always nice to see him. He's another one of our marker birds—birds with a telltale physical feature that makes them easy to spot as individuals. We've had Mr. Troyer, the male eastern bluebird with a droopy wing from a sharp-shinned hawk attack; Snowflake the leucistic dark-eyed junco, and a few others.

I'm hoping Half-cap enjoys a long, fruitful life here on our farm.

Here, but NOT Welcome!

Oh, the hated brown-headed cowbirds are back. They return in the spring just before the songbirds that they parasitize so thoroughly. Here's a male (right) and female hoping to fatten up on cracked corn in our side yard.

I won't recount the entire natural history of the brown-headed cowbird, except to say that they evolved following roving herds of bison, eating the insects these large mammals kicked up. Being constantly mobile, cowbirds could not afford to build a nest, incubate eggs, and raise young. So they adapted to let someone else do all the work. Female cowbirds lay their eggs in the nests of other birds. They are amazingly good at finding hidden bird nests and waiting until the coast is clear to slip in and make an unwanted egg deposit.

Two weeks later the "foster" parents are raising a youngster that is not their own (and probably arguing over whose side of the family the nestling's ugliness comes from).

If it weren't illegal and bad for the soul, I'd consider doing something to control this species. Cowbird control measures have resulted in increased reproduction by the endangered Kirtland's warbler in Michigan.


Every year here on our farm we see fledgling cowbirds and it makes me heartsick to think of the wood thrushes, blue-winged warblers, and indigo buntings that were fooled into raising them.

One species that never has to raise cowbirds to fledging is the American goldfinch. Their nests get cowbird eggs to be sure, but the nestling cowbirds cannot survive on the goldfinches' all-seed diet.

Instead of "offing" cowbirds, we'll quit feeding so much corn and mixed seed (which the cowbirds love) and we'll curse these parasites whenever we see them.

The First Bird of the Year

American goldfinch at the Indigo Hill feeding station.

Happy New Year, everybody!

My first bird of 2008 was an American goldfinch in winter plumage.

I could have waited around, blind-folded until Julie saw a less common species and led me to it—say a nice eastern bluebird, or a purple finch, or a red-breasted nuthatch—but when I cracked my eyes open for a few minutes at about 8:30 this morning, it was the GOFI that I saw.

This is a game I've played for a couple of decades. Some years I really try to get a "good" bird to start the year off. When I lived in New York City it was almost always a rock pigeon (then rock dove) or a house sparrow. One year I lucked out with a herring gull. In Baltimore, I could sometimes see the neighborhood American kestrel that roosted in the church steeple across the park from my apartment.

I did not see another bird today until about 2:45. I was sleeping to recover from a very late night last night. More on that later...