Young Finches Learning The Ropes At The Feeders

As signs of fall migration make themselves achingly apparent, many of the goldfinches in my area are still holding on strong to breeding plumage.  As I was digiscoping this male yesterday, I noticed differences in the bird calls around me.  No indigo bunting singing on territory or red-eyed vireo--that was first this month.  There were contact calls of warblers.  I did hear a scarlet tanager giving the old "chick-burr" behind me and noted that while the tanager was here, all the orioles were gone.  I know most people in my neck of the woods have lamented our cold summer.  Wearing a jacket in August is crazy, even by Minnesota standards, but I have loved it.  Although, as much as I enjoy cool nights and several days without turning on the air conditioner, I look at all my friends who cannot get a tomato to turn red in their gardens this summer and wonder how this affects the seed crops and insects fall migrants need to head south.  I also wonder if this means an exceptionally long winter as well.

I did notice this male goldfinch on the long tube with kind of a reverse goatee.  He's bald around his beak.  I seem to recall seeing this before in a goldfinch either last year or two years ago.  I wonder if it's an odd molt or some sort of mites (not unlike the bald cardinals we see this time of year).  This particular male had at least one recently fledged chick following him around to the feeders begging to be fed.

The adult male is on the bottom of the sunflower tube feeder and the begging chick is on the upper perch.  The adult would dutifully demonstrate how to get seed out of the port, while the younger bird above continued to beg.  Eventually, the young bird left the adult alone and tried pecking around the feeder.  It ignored the gaping opening of the feeding port, and pecked at the plexiglass tube.  It could see the seed and couldn't understand why it couldn't get at the food.

Eventually, the adult male flew to a different feeder and what does the young finch do? Continue to ignore the open port with food and hang upside down towards where the adult had been feeding and unsuccessfully pecking at the tube around the port.  Not the brightest bulb on the tree.

The young finch followed the adult male over to the Nyjer feeder and begrudgingly began to eat the seed out of that port.  All the while, continuing to flutter its wings in a food begging behavior.

The young bird finally left the Nyjer feeder and flew over to a black oil sunflower feeder.  Soon afterwards, it was joined by a young house finch (who had just a hint of pink show up along his flanks).  Both birds fed in peace, but periodically the larger house finch would lunge toward the goldfinch if it got too close.  I wonder if these will be the last of the fledglings I will see for the year?

Aberrant Plumaged Goldfinch

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QzESPoTl_LU[/youtube] That odd little American goldfinch is still hanging around, he showed up this morning on my sunflower feeder while I was making breakfast and I tried to grab a quick video (apologize for the Wayne Newton in the background).  I don't think that cap is ever going to grow in, it's almost time for the male goldfinches to return to their winter plumage.  I wonder if he will stick out in his winter plumage?

Minor Notes To NBB's Guest Blogging

For the record, when Non Birding Bill offered to take over the blog when I had to leave town, I did leave him some photos to use in my absence to help him out, like the one above. Why, my goodness, what is that? Why isn't that a colorful bird on that bird feeder? Is it me or is that bird bright yellow and not brown? Right before I left, we had been at Mr. Neil's and he had tons of young bird coming to the feeders, learning how to eat at the big kid table. Here's a young downy woodpecker--his red cap on the front of his forehead distinguishes him from an adult male who would have the red on the back of the head. Oh, look at that--red and not brown. Harumph!

I even told NBB that he could do a post on all the young rose-breasted grosbeaks hanging out at the feeders. Look, another bird with some color, oh my. Here's a young male fresh from the nest. These guys were just thugs. Perhaps their larger size and demand for food made them so formidable to the other birds at the feeding stations. Titmice, nuthatches, and finches flew away on the young grosbeaks' approach.

Here is a young house finch minding its own business while feeding. This bird is fresh from the nest as well, not the yellow gape on the beak. Anyway, this guy was just feeding on a lower perch, there were plenty of other feeding stations around, and this finch even took the lowest perch--the least desirable to adults who would prefer to be higher up.

But, in flew a young grosbeak to the lower perch and the young house finch flushed. The grosbeak stayed on the perch where the finch had been, but then flew up to one of the higher perches and began to feed. The young finch watched and waited for the grosbeak to feed so it could have access to the food source. I think the adult grosbeaks were no longer feeding the young ones, and they began to feed themselves. They seemed to watch other birds feeding and when they noticed a species eating, they flew to where it was to try the food out. Their larger size flushed the smaller birds. Thugs.

Even though there were tray feeders that had large platforms to fit a grosbeak, all the young came to this tube feeder. Above is young female--now, unlike what NBB asserted, she looks very different from a house finch, she's larger, has different striping and look at that distinct eyebrow.

See how she bends and curves? It's interesting how in some yards, birds won't go the extra mile to feed out of a feeder that is too small, but in other yards they will.

Anyway, I do appreciate NBB filling in for me while I was away. He is a very talented writer and funny, and I'm lucky to married to such a man.