Goldfinch
Slightly shaded (ISO4000) and a little further away than ideal, but still, the first Goldfinch I've seen for a while.
Prospect Desert, Reading, UK
Canon R5 MkII + RF200-800
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7 replies
Ah, TIL there is more than one goldfinch.
This is ours, Spinus tristis.
Do yours lose their color in the winter as well, or do they stay the same year round?
Carduelis Carduelis in the UK case :)
I believe their plumage remains pretty much the same through their adult life, and males and females are really quite similar (with hints as to sex but not enough to be sure).
Ours lose nearly all their gold in the wintertime and start to change back in the spring again. It's fun watching them regain their colors, somewhat like they're blooming with the spring flowers.
That's what caught my attention to your pic, both the red face and that it still wasn't full gold this late in the year. That red color looks nice and vibrant, I like it.
The females are a bit duller than the males with some olive coloration blended in. Still very pretty.
The bottom picture looks a bit like the European Siskin or the European Serin.
That sent me down a real rabbit hole!
The Siskin really does look remarkably similar, so I saw that was Spinus spinus, so with it sounding like a type species, I was curious why a New World finch and an Old World finch were in the same genus.
In 2012 a complete genetic study of all finches (The phylogenetic relationships and generic limits of finches (Fringillidae), Dario Zuccon) was completed, and it caused a bunch of things to get reclassified out of Carduelis. It was waaaaay too deep into the genetics for me to really understand, but the dumbed down Wikipedia entry for Spinus has some serin and siskin in them, with the Tibetan Serin and European Siskin being close genetic relatives of the American continents' goldfinches, siskins, and serins.
I knew there were a lot of finches, but other than the goldfinches, I'm not great at IDing them, so this really tossed me in the deep end of seeing just how many there really are! Thanks for the inspiration at checking that out.
This entire thread has been fascinating.
I love the random tangents I get sent on talking birds and other animals with you guys!
Between researching things every day for posting in the owl group and working at the rehab, it astounds me how little we actually know about even the everyday animals around us. There is still near endless amounts of discovery we have left to do. I thought I would have been bored sharing things long ago, but every day I learn something new.
Technological advances have really expanded our abilities to study them and share data worldwide, and the part that I think is best is that many opportunities still exist for people with little/no experience can participate in these new discoveries. Since there is no money the research, there are many unexplored spaces left for those that are into this for purely academic interersts.