The Golden Birds

Bring bright, thistle-loving beauties to your backyard.

- Kelsey Roseth

Seeing a vibrant yellow American goldfinch at a feeder is enough to make any birder’s heart skip a beat. Among the muted plumage of pine siskins, chickadees and sparrows, these bright beauties are a shock to the system.

“They are very striking,” says Scott Gremel, a wildlife biologist at Washington’s Olympic National Park. “They look like tropical birds.” Male and female goldfinches appear markedly different during breeding season, when males molt into bright yellow body feathers with black wings and cap and an orange bill. Juveniles and females are less colorful year-round. In winter, males have a dark bill and dull yellow body feathers, and look more like the females.