European Goldfinch – Complete Guide to Cute Singing Birds

European goldfinch is a small cute bird and a member of the finch family. This family is native of European North Africa and North and South Asia.

In this article, we are going to reveal all the details about European Goldfinch including its two types.

This bird is known as “Carduelis carduelis” as well. Another nickname for European Goldfinch is cute singing birds as well. You can find these birds in Canada, Argentina, the USA, Australia, South Africa, and few types of European Goldfinch are found in India & Pakistan as well.

Physical Description of European Goldfinch:

European Goldfinch male and female are almost similar. Both have red faces with black and whiteheads and nut-brown upperparts and white underparts with buff flanks and have patches on the breast.

European goldfinches have black and yellow wings. Males European goldfinch can be differentiated by a large and dark red mask that extends over the eyes. Shoulders feathers are black and in males and nut-brown in females.

European goldfinches have an ivory-colored bill which is long and pointed the tail is split. An average European goldfinch is 12- 13 cm almost (5 inches) long. Its weight is 16 grams and its wingspan is 25-28 cm.

European goldfinches are characterized as long pointed beaks for extracting seeds from teasles and searching thistle blossoms. The life span of the European goldfinch is 8 to 10 years.

The record age of a goldfinch is 11 years old. Some species of goldfinches live a life of 12 years.

1) Classification of European Goldfinch:

European goldfinch is a bird that is described and illustrated by the Swiss naturalist “Conrad Gassner” in his “Historiae Animalium” of 1555.

The first formal description is given by Carl Linnaeus in the 10^th edition of his book  System Nature in this book He gave the bionomical name “Fringilla Carduelis” to European goldfinches. This edition was published in 1758. Carduelis is a Latin word that means “goldfinch”. The European goldfinch is now added to the genus Carduelis that is introduced by French zoologist  Mathurin Jacques Brisson in 1760.

In the second half of the 14^th century “Geoffrey  Chaucer” used the English word goldfinch in his incomplete cook’s tale.

The European goldfinches belong to the clade of cardueline finches. The Citril finch and Corsican finches are its sisters’ taxa. Greenfinches, crossbills, and redpolls are the closest relatives of a European goldfinch

Modern molecular genetic studies have shown that the European goldfinch is closely related to the citril finch and Corsican finch.

2) Origin of European goldfinch:

European finches are widespread species in Europe, North Africa, and North and South Asia but recently these birds are introduced to new places like Australia news Zealand  Canada, China, United States, Brazil,  and Bermuda in the 19^th century and their population widely increase and rang greatly expended. These are found in open wooded places, revering, gardens and parks.

European goldfinches are famous for their bright and beautiful colors. Finches have beautiful colors because of their bright and beautiful colors birders love to well come them in their yards and gardens.

European finches have a very melodious voice and they interact with each other vocally. They are always praised for their singing and its unique and typical warbling.  Because of their singing ability, these birds are taken from the natural environment to the home and caged for life that dulls their life and nature also.

3) European Goldfinch Diet:

European goldfinches are herbivores and eat seeds plants fruits buds and some insects.  In the search for food, these birds visit bird feeders daily, especially in winters. Any bird feeder can attract them to your yards and gardens.

These are the easiest birds to attract to your backyards and gardens through bird feeders. Nyjer seed is European goldfinch’s favorite food these seeds are from African yellow daisies. if you want to attract them to your yard and garden keep nyjer seeds in your bird feeder.

European Finches can travel the whole day in search of food. These birds are also fond of sunflower. These birds need plenty of food on daily basis. They consume a lot of green vegetables daily.  These are so active and healthy birds and they can travel the whole day to cover the distance.

4) Breeding Season of Carduelis carduelis:

European Goldfinches in breeding condition have a white bill with grayish or blackish marks on the tip for the whole year. European goldfinches breed season start in mid of July.

In the breeding, season the nest is completely built by female finches they make a small but neat and compact nest within a week. The nest is made with herbs, moss. Vegetable fiber and feathers, cobwebs, animal hairs, feathers, and some aromatic flowers are used.

While in the making of the nest male finches accompany the female but didn’t contribute. Finches use to keep their nest several meters above the ground and cover their nest with leaves. A deep cup is used to prevent loose of eggs in hard weather. Eggs are laid early in the morning at daily intervals.

The eggs are whitish with reddish-brown speckles.  in a clutch, 4 to 6 eggs are laid.   These eggs have a smooth surface and are slightly glossy. The average size is 17mm with a calculated weight of 1.53g.

Eggs are hatch by the female for 11 to 13 days while the male is responsible to provide food. Chicks are feed by both parents.

Parents provide food to Chicks during their last week in the nest and into the first 2-3  weeks after the young birds can fledge. chicks eat a mixture of seeds and insects initially but after some time insect’s portion is decreased.

Male finches are responsible to look after baby finches for 2 to 3 weeks and female finches are responsible to collect food.

5) Migratory Birds:

European goldfinches are usually migratory. They move in flocks. Due to the cold weather in the UK they use to migrate to France and Russia. It also makes local migrations due to bad weather.

These birds make flocks and can travel the whole day.

European finches are monogamous and they make long-lasting bounds.  The couple gets together in march and separates their ways in September or October.

6) European Goldfinch as Cute Singing Birds:

These birds are famous for their voice and songs. People love hearing them. These are small and colorful birds.  Their bright color gave a pleasant feel. If you keep them in your yards and gardens they tend to lose their native songs and calls which they use to sing with their mates. These birds are used to live in open places. Paired-up goldfinches make virtually identical flight calls. Goldfinches can distinguish members of different types by their calls.

Keeping them in your yards and gardens is not tough. They can visit you daily if you keep a bird feeder in your garden and yards.

European finches are less common in unplanned areas but commonly can be seen everywhere in planed areas.

 7) The population of European Goldfinch:

This species has an extremely large range. According to the ICUN red list, the European goldfinch population Is about 101-155 million individuals. And in Europe, the breeding population is 27.8 –  42.7 million pairs which are equal to 55.7- 85.5 million mature individuals.

11 Tips To Keep European Goldfinch At Home:

Want to keep European goldfinches?

These are the high-energy birds and. To keep themselves healthy they need to fly in cages.

1. The cage should be wider than the bird’s length, so it can easily fly here and there.
2. Bar spacing should be enough so that birds never caught between wires.
3. Keep at least two to three perches in the cage. But try not to full cage with accessories.
4. Place the cage in sunlight and airy place and away from drafty areas
5. The Cage must protect birds from intense cold weather.
6. Food and water serving must be clean and placed in the right place serve clean fresh and healthy food daily.
7. Bath them once a week with clean water. Clean cages and birdhouse twice a week
8. Talk to them and listen to their melodious songs. You will love their company and they also.
9. At night cover the cages with some piece of cloth or put the cage in some peaceful and quiet place for sleeping.
10. The Noise of tv or traffic and kids yelling will disturb them and a healthy bird need a peaceful sleep, So avoid noise near them.
11. Wing clipping is not necessary. Trim naily if needed (if found too long or dirty) nail trimming must be done by a professional.

European goldfinches are social, peaceful, and friendly birds they can keep with other birds of the same species but the cage must be as wider.

How To check your bird’s health at Home:

If you want to know about your bird’s basic health follow some pro tips from my side that I use to check my birds whether it’s healthy or not:

• Eating and drinking the whole day [they are good in health].
• Responds actively [good health ].
• Active, responsive, and sociable [health check ok].
• Never sneezing, have bright and dry eyes. [growing well]
• Organs like legs beaks and feet appear normal.
• Cleaned feathers.

Two Major Types Of European Goldfinch:

There are two types of European goldfinches:

1. American Goldfinch
2. Himalayan Goldfinch

Below, we are giving brief details about each type.

American Goldfinch:

The American goldfinches are the most widespread species in North American. American goldfinches have bright yellow color which attracts eyes.  Like other finches, these are also small in size and light in weight.  It is only 4 to 5 inches long and its weight is  0.5 and 0.7 0unces its wingspan is 7 -9 inches.

Male American finch has bright yellow and shiny black color with a flake of white color and this color is caused by pigments from the seeds and plants they take in their diet.  Female  American goldfinches are brown with a light underside and light yellow on their bib.

The American goldfinch is a bird of Washington, Iowa, and new jersey. They are fond of nyjer seeds and sunflowers.

8 Interesting Facts About American Goldfinches:

There are various facts to share about American Goldfinches, below we have shared 8 of the most interesting American Goldfinches facts.

1. American goldfinches are not similar to European goldfinches.
2. American goldfinches make their nests waterproof.
3. Like other goldfinches American goldfinches never eat insects, these finches are strictly vegetarian and entirely take a vegetarian diet. These birds take Seed buds flowers, and plants into their diet.
4. Like all other finches, American finches also love nyjer seeds because of their high oil and calorie contents.
5. American goldfinches use their feet to extract seeds from flowers and plants.
6. It is good to buy a birdhouse to protect an American goldfinch from intense weather and winter storms.
7. The American goldfinch is the only finch that molts its body feathers twice a year in late winter and in late summer respectively.
8. When brown-headed cowbirds lay eggs in an  American goldfinch’s nest the cowbird’s eggs may hatch by nestling seldom survives longer than three days because cowbirds cant survives on the all seeds diet that American goldfinches gave to their chicks.

Himalayan Goldfinch:

Himalayan goldfinch is a subtype of subspecies of European goldfinch. It is also known as the gray crowned goldfinch. Like other finches, it is also small in size and light in weight. Its length is 4-5 inches and its weight is 16 -22 grams.

Himalayan goldfinches found in Western and Northern Pakistan and also found in the northern Himalayas to central Nepal and Xiang.  These are similar to the European gold finches but as European finches have Nut-brown color they have a gray color.  Used to eat cereal seeds, canary grass seeds, green vegetables, and live food. Himalayan goldfinch is fond of safflower and thistle.

Conclusion:

In this article, we have discussed a lot of information and facts about European goldfinches including their type, breeding, nesting, and much more you can have a detailed guide about European goldfinch in this article.

European goldfinches are small cute birds and famous for their bright and beautiful colors. These birds are also famous for their melodious voices people love their singing. You can easily keep them in your yards and gardens. 

They sing the song happily and joyfully with their friends and family but if we keep them in cages we will destroy their natural abilities. We humans can dull them by caging them at our home in small places, they love open places big trees, and gardens where they can move freely. 

In my opinion, we should prefer birds watching in their own places with all their charms and sparks instead of keeping them in our homes in cages where they really don’t want to be!

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