American Goldfinch Photos

Photography by Terry Sohl

My Favorite: There may not be a single bird species I see more often and more regularly than American Goldfinches. We have a very large thistle (niger) feeder in our yard, and regardless of time of year, it usually attracts a lot of attention from goldfinches. The nice thing about them is that they're around all year long, and the winter months are when they typically are most commonly at my feeders. My favorite photo is of an American Goldfinch, doing what goldfinches do...feed on thistle seeds. In fact, their very life cycle seems to be dependent on thistles and other seeds, as they nest much later in the summer than other songbirds, presumably because that's when an ample supply of thistle and other seeds are available. The photo below is from near Corson, South Dakota on July 4th, 2020.

American Goldfinch - Spinus tristis


American Goldfinch 1	American Goldfinch 2	American Goldfinch 3	American Goldfinch 4
June 11th, 2006	May 18th, 2008	June 17th, 2006	October 10th, 2004
Beaver Creek Nature Area, South Dakota	Beaver Creek Nature Area, South Dakota	Beaver Creek Nature Area, South Dakota	Outdoor Campus, Sioux Falls, South Dakota
Female perched on tree branch	Male in breeding pluimage	Male in breeding pluimage	Winter plumage

American Goldfinch 5	American Goldfinch 6	American Goldfinch 7	American Goldfinch 8
October 10th, 2004	July 2nd, 2006	May 18th, 2008	May 18th, 2008
Outdoor Campus, Sioux Falls, South Dakota	Big Sioux Recreation Area, South Dakota	Beaver Creek Nature Area, South Dakota	Beaver Creek Nature Area, South Dakota
Winter plumage feeding on flower seeds	Summer plumage male on eastern red cedar	Male in breeding plumage	Female perched on a tree branch

American Goldfinch 9	American Goldfinch 10	American Goldfinch 11	American Goldfinch 12
May 18th, 2008	May 21st, 2009	May 21st, 2009	May 11th 2009
Beaver Creek Nature Area, South Dakota	Near Brandon, South Dakota	Near Brandon, South Dakota	Brandon, South Dakota
Female amidst fresh spring foliage	Male in breeding plumage	Male in breeding plumage	Spring female on crabapple tree

American Goldfinch 13	American Goldfinch 14	American Goldfinch 15	American Goldfinch 16
March 21st, 2010	July 2009	May 2nd, 2010	May 16th, 2011
Perry Nature Area near Sioux Falls, S.Dakota	Brandon, South Dakota	Brandon, South Dakota	Brandon, South Dakota
Female on cold spring morning	Female sitting on nest in Linden tree	Male not quite in full summer plumage	Male in summer plumage

American Goldfinch 17	American Goldfinch 18	American Goldfinch 19	American Goldfinch 20
May 16th, 2011	May 7th, 2019	May 7th, 2019	June 7th, 2020
Brandon, South Dakota	Brandon, South Dakota	Brandon, South Dakota	Near Corson, South Dakota
Female in budding crabapple tree	Male in crabapple tree	Breeding plumaged male in crabapple tree	Male profile, summer plumage

American Goldfinch 21	American Goldfinch 22	American Goldfinch 23	American Goldfinch 24
June 7th, 2020	July 4th, 2020	July 4th, 2020	July 4th, 2020
Near Corson, South Dakota	Near Corson, South Dakota	Near Corson, South Dakota	Near Corson, South Dakota
Summer plumage male with feathers blowing in the wind	Female foraging for thistle seeds	Male foraging for thistle seeds	Breeding plumage male foraging for thistle seeds