4 replies to this topic

[Helen]

Hello everyone, my name is Helen and I am a backyard birder.  I am having a real hard time identifying a fat, cute little bird that has showed up at my feeding station for the past 3 days.

The bird is plump, it has deep olive coloring on the head and back area.  It is medium yellow on the throat with lighter yellow on the *** and belly and changing to cream at base of tail.  The wings are a mixture of brown, gray and white with no clear identifying strips or bands. The eyes are black with no rings.  No stripe on body or ***.  The beak and feet are orange/pink.  The bird likes thistle seed and the bird bath for drinking.  I at first thought that it may be a young Goldfinch, however when compared to the other Goldfinches at my station, this bird is about 1-2 inches longer and much fatter then them.  The Goldfinches do chase this bird away at the feeder and the bird is solatary in nature.  I have not heard it call. 

I did take some pictures, vie the camcorder, lol and the pictures are not to clear.  I will try to upload the best one when I can figure out how to do that.

Thanks for any help you can give me, this one really has me stumped.

Helen

PS:  My location is southern Pennsylvania

 

 

 

[Helen]

Hello all,  I've posted 3 pictures of my little friend to see if we can identify it in the picture galery.  I  selected the 3 of what I think are best views of the bird.  I also posted one of this bird on the thistle bag along with a Goldfinch to show the difference in sizes. 

Any help will be appreciated. 

Thanks

Helen in PA

[David Lukas]

Helen,

Thanks for your question about this bird. I'll do the best I can to answer it, but unfortunately the pictures are at the very edge of my ability to get any detail out of them. Although you say this bird is slightly larger I would hazard a guess that it is a female American Goldfinch. At the very least, everything you describe about the bird and everything I can see in the photos seems to support this conclusion.

The important details you describe are the yellow underparts and darker olive upperparts. I can also see in one photo that the bird has brown-black wings. One important detail you provide is that the yellow belly turns to creamy white in the vent, which is a key field mark for the American Goldfinch. And you also describe the bird's pink bill and legs, another good field mark for the goldfinch.

I know you're probably curious why this bird would be larger, but I don't have an answer. Maybe it really is a different species, but we would need some more photos to make this determination. Please forward more if you get a chance.

Thanks and we hope this helps,

David Lukas and Simone Whitecloud

[Helen]

Hi David and Simone,

Thanks for your response.  I am keeping an eye on my little buddy.  He is a friendly bird, doesn't seem to be shy around people.  I have been able to get quite close to it.  He's still hanging around and stays pretty much away from the other birds.  I am watching to see if he changes, considering he may be a young Goldfinch.  If I notice any changes I will post more, hopefully, better pictures of it.

Thanks

Helen

 

[David Lukas]

That's wonderful. If you can get more pictures from different angles and perhaps at higher resolution, we might be able to confirm this identification for you!

David and Simone