Goldfinch

There are many species of finches and many varieties and subspecies within those species. Many times one will see a brightly colored bird that doesn’t seem to belong. And one finds out it doesn’t. It is an escaped pet, hybrid finch.

Goldfinches seem to be plentiful in this area. I believe that is largely due to the revival of the popularity of planting native flowers, and the understanding of the need for native plants in the life-cycle of birds, insects and bees. Throughout the 1990s and 2000s, North America was losing its bird population at the alarming rate of an average of 5% each year. By around 2011, the trend was reversed and birds started to recover. This happened as people planted more natives, reduced lawn areas and increased planting areas, reduced or eliminated the use of pesticides and herbicides after educating themselves about the benefit of living in the ecosystem not off of it.

Goldfinches are beautiful and are capable of several songs. We are regularly visited by our yellow friends in our yard in Perkasie. This painting is based on an experience I had in June 2016 at our house on Front St., Souderton, shortly after my open heart surgery to replace my damaged aortic valve with a pig valve. I had just exited our house and was passing the front “garden”, a jumble of native plants and weeds. I was moving slowly. A male goldfinch landed on one of the many Echinacea that were in bloom. He was within arm’s length of me. He tilted his head and looked at me; then he began to sing. He went through all of his repertoire, then it seemed as if he turned to me again for a response. I said, “Thank you, Mr. Goldfinch!” He nodded and flew off, It was a magical moment, like something from one of those classic Disney movies.

Family: Finches