Male
Description
Size: 5”
Plumage / Description: Male breeding plumage is a brilliant lemon-yellow on throat, breast, belly and back with a black crown and black wings. Male non-breeding plumage is an overall tannish back, breast, and belly, wings dark with a prominent wing bar. Female breeding plumage is a pale yellow color overall, with wing bars on darker colored wings. Female non-breeding plumage is a brownish/grayish color overall with two prominent wing bars.
Habitat: Weedy and grassy fields, in residential areas at bird feeders.
Time of year: A fall, winter, and spring visitor to the Central Highlands area of Arizona. Non-breeder.
Relative Abundance: Fairly common in appropriate season
Behavior: A seed eater. Frequently found in mixed flocks with Lesser
Goldfinches and Pine Siskins at seed feeders.
Diet: Insects in summer months, seeds year-round. At feeders prefers a diet of black-oil sunflower seeds, particularly out of the shell, and nyjer/thistle seed.
Similar species: Lesser Goldfinches and Pine Siskins which are also frequent visitors to backyard feeding stations.
Best sites: Weedy, brushy fields, open areas, in residential neighborhoods
