Merriam's Goldfinch

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Merriam’s Goldfinch, Spinus merriamii L 11-13 cm, WS 20-23 cm, Family: Fringillidae

IUCN Conservation Status: Least concern (LC)

 

Description:    

Small finch with medium-length notched tail and short conical bill. Breeding males are bright yellow in the face and breast, with a gray nape and green crown and back. Wings are black with two white wingbars and subtle white markings, rump white. Bill and legs pale orange. Females lack yellow, instead have drab yellow-brown wash. Winter males similar to females, slightly brighter. Juvenile and molting males show patchy yellow.

Voice:

Song is a sweet-sounding series of varied tweets and warbles, lasting two to four seconds, with no discernable pattern. Song rarely repeats with the same phrases in the same order. Calls also varied; most common call is a monotone high-pitched “tip-tip-tip” often given in flight. A long, rising buzzy “Zzzipp” call between tweets and chatter given mostly during foraging can be diagnostic.

Range and Habitat:    

Range encompasses entirety of Novasola. Habitat generalists, Goldfinches will be found in most habitat types, from dense rainforest to alpine tundra but prefer open woodlands, floodplains, scrubland, overgrown wetland, and forest edge. Birds of the prairie interior prefer areas with more woody vegetation like sagebrush. Goldfinches are common in urban and suburban areas, they will frequent parks and yards, and are perhaps the most common feeder bird across the island.

Discussion:      

The most common finch on Novasola, and one of the most common backyard feeder birds, the Merriam’s Goldfinch is perhaps one of the best-known birds on the island. Like the other common finch, the Christmas Finch, Goldfinches have been extremely successful adapting to human development and exploiting novel food sources. In the wild the diet of the Merriam’s Goldfinch consists entirely of seeds, especially from sunflowers, thistle, grasses, and aster, as well as those from birch, alder, cedar, and hemlock.

Social birds, the Goldfinch will forage in flocks. Males become somewhat territorial during nesting but are still comfortable in smaller groups. Breeding males will sing from exposed branches, which along with their color make them easy to spot. Once paired with a female, the two will search for a nest site upon which the female will build a nest, often fairly exposed itself.  Pairs are generally monogamous, and usually have one to two broods a year. Eggs are a pale blue color. After the breeding season they will form larger nomadic flocks and are often found mixed with other finches, sparrows, or chickadees.

The name Merriam’s Goldfinch honors Florence Augusta Merriam, a prominent American ornithologist of the late 1800s and early 1900s who transitioned field ornithology into the modern tradition when she wrote her book Birds through an Opera-Glass, perhaps the first modern field guide to birds, in 1889. An avid conservationist, her activism helped pass critical legislation like the Lacey Act and the Migratory Bird Treaty Act. Her work as a scientist, writer, and activist helped transform not just ornithology, but the world itself; an amazing accomplishment for any person, let alone a woman, at the turn of the century. Merriam was a great inspiration to Richard Reichwald, who decided to honor her by naming not one but many Novasolan bird species after her, and later invited her and her husband to tour the island with him on multiple occasions in the 1920s. Not all the birds Reichwald named for her remain named as such, but the Merriam’s Goldfinch, the first such honor, carries on that legacy. In recent years there has been an international push to change all eponymous bird names in an attempt to remove "ownership" of species and not to honor problematic historical figures; those who wish to see this bird's common name changed prefer the name Novasolan Goldfinch.  

Familiar to anyone on Novasola, the Merriam’s Goldfinch is a staple of backyards and parks across the island. Their prevalence, along with their bright yellow plumage and fluttering, acrobatic nature, make them a favorite, and they were even considered for replacing the Black Crane as Novasola’s state bird. The Goldfinch was also among the first birds described by Reichwald during the NRC expeditions, and he even wrote about them before the expeditions began.

“Another such calling I heard between my departure from the boat and my arrival at my new quarters came surely from a goldfinch, obvious as such yet clearly unique to this island. I have since observed numerous individuals of this species fluttering and foraging among the town’s hedgerows and weeds, and there can be no doubt of the relation between this finch and the goldfinches of the mainland.” – Personal journal, March 2, 1902

“West Francis Island has proven generous in its offering of nature in the short time we have already spent. Our second morning here, I thought it prudent to my duties that I spend the dawn farther inland, where after my hike through a forest of pine and pseudotsuga and madrone, I have found myself in a small clearing, a meadow of aster and thistle and wildflowers of sorts foreign to me still which made for scenic and comfortable seating. Upon gazing the meadow I found I was not alone; a flock of some size was busy feeding from the flowers. Goldfinches they were, of brighter color than I have yet seen them, though many proving their molt in patches. I watched as they fed, playful in their ways, flitting to and fro, landing atop thistles and dandelions and asters, which strained to support them, before tumbling off and flying to the next one.” – Expedition log, April 10 1902

“Merriam’s Goldfinch is a description for which I am most proud, as she to whom the name honors and respects deserves such. Though now under the name Bailey, Florence Merriam’s impression on my own work is as obvious as the plumage of her finch…” – Native Birds of Novasola, 1912

“Mr. Reichwald has returned from his excursions exhausted but rejuvenated and revitalized, as he does whenever visited by his friends Mr. and Mrs. Bailey. This is now the third such trip he has hosted for them, and though he has not yet benefited from a day’s rest in the civilized world he already speaks of inviting them back for another trip. I haven’t gotten any words from him since he arrived regarding any matters outside his high spirits, the work the trio was able to accomplish, the plans for next time, and his pride in having been told by Mrs. Bailey that the goldfinch named by Mr. Reichwald in her honor has become her personal favorite. I have no doubt I will yet again be called upon to watch his belongings soon.” – Benjamin Farr, NRC member and personal friend to Richard Reichwald, in a letter to his wife, 1925