Despite the snow, and ice, and cold – spring MUST be here!
Our goldfinches are turning GOLD!
OK, so the males look more motley than golden today – but they are molting their drab winter feathers, and bit-by-bit becoming the brilliant-yellow birds that my Dad appropriately called “wild canaries.”
They have been with us all winter, happily gobbling the sunflower hearts and niger seed we provided for them. But winter goldfinches – let’s face it – are kind of drab. Sure, the black wings sport white bars – but the birds’ bodies are cloaked in dull, gray-green feathers.
While females look about the same all year, in spring the males begin to take on the striking, sun-gold colors of the state bird we all know and love.
Watch for them. And when you see the first bright yellow patches on finches at your feeder, you can be assured that it’s officially SPRING!