European Goldfinch

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European Goldfinch
In Tarn, France
Conservation status
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Aves
Order: Passeriformes
Family: Fringillidae
Genus: Carduelis
Species: C. carduelis
Binomial name
Carduelis carduelis
(Linnaeus, 1758)
Carduelis carduelis carduelis
1 summer 2 all year
Carduelis carduelis caniceps
3 summer 4 all year

The European Goldfinch or Goldfinch (Carduelis carduelis), is a small passerine bird in the finch family.

Taxonomy and systematics

The species is divided into two major groups, each comprising several races. The two groups intergrade at their boundary, so the caniceps group is not recognised as a distinct species despite its readily distinguishable plumage.

Carduelis carduelis carduelis group.
  • Carduelis carduelis balcanica. Southeastern European
  • Carduelis carduelis brevirostris. Crimea, north Caucasus.
  • Carduelis carduelis britannica. British Isles.
  • Carduelis carduelis carduelis. Most of European mainland, Scandinavia.
  • Carduelis carduelis loudoni. South Caucasus, Iran.
  • Carduelis carduelis major. Western Siberia.
  • Carduelis carduelis niediecki. Southwest Asia, northeast Africa.
  • Carduelis carduelis parva. Atlantic Macaronesic Islands (Canary I., Madeira), Iberia [citation needed], northwest Africa.
  • Carduelis carduelis tschusii. Corsica, Sardinia, Sicily.
Carduelis carduelis caniceps group.
  • Carduelis carduelis caniceps. Southern central Asia.
  • Carduelis carduelis paropanisi. Afghanistan to western Himalaya and Tien Shan.
  • Carduelis carduelis subulata. South-central Siberia.

Linnaeus classified the bird as Fringilla carduelis.

The phylogeny has been obtained by Antonio Arnaiz-Villena et al.[2][3][4][5][6][7][8]

Description

Male and female on a Sunflower, in Tabo, India
Male European Goldfinch, in Jispa, Himachal Pradesh, India

The average Goldfinch is 12–13 cm long with a wingspan of 21–25 cm and a weight of 14 to 19 grams. The sexes are broadly similar, with a red face, black and white head, warm brown upperparts, white underparts with buff flanks and breast patches, and black and yellow wings.

On closer inspection male Goldfinches can often be distinguished by a larger, darker red mask that extends just behind the eye. In females, the red face does not reach the eye. The ivory-coloured bill is long and pointed, and the tail is forked. Goldfinches in breeding condition have a white bill, with a greyish or blackish mark at the tip for the rest of the year. Juveniles have a plain head and a greyer back but are unmistakable due to the yellow wing stripe. Birds in central Asia (caniceps group) have a plain grey head behind the red face, lacking the black and white head pattern of European and western Asian birds.[9][10]

Distribution and habitat

The goldfinch is native to Europe, North Africa, and western and central Asia. It is found in open, partially wooded lowlands and is a resident in the milder west of its range, but migrates from colder regions. It will also make local movements, even in the west, to escape bad weather. It has been introduced to many areas of the world.[11] It was introduced at numerous places in south-eastern Australia in the 19th century, and their populations quickly increased and their range expanded greatly. They now occur from Brisbane to the Eyre Peninsula.[12]

Behaviour and ecology

Feeding on thistles - note thistledown in bill
A nest and eggs.

The goldfinch's preferred food is small seeds such as those from thistles (the Latin name is from Carduus, a genus of thistles) and teasels, but insects are also taken when feeding young. It also regularly visits bird feeders in winter. Goldfinches nest in the outer twigs of tall leafy trees, or even in bamboo, laying four to six eggs, which hatch in 11–14 days.

In the winter goldfinches group together to form flocks of up to forty, occasionally more.

The song is a pleasant silvery twittering. The call is a melodic tickeLIT, and the song is a pleasant tinkling medley of trills and twitters, but always including the trisyllabic call phrase or a teLLIT-teLLIT-teLLIT.

In earlier times, the Goldfinch was kept as a cagebird for its song. Escapes from captivity and deliberate releases have colonised southeastern Australia and New Zealand.

Goldfinches are attracted to back gardens in Europe and North America by birdfeeders containing niger (commercially described as nyjer) seed. This seed of an annual from South Asia is small, and high in oils. Special polycarbonate feeders with small oval slits at which the Goldfinches feed are sometimes used.

Relationships with humans

Captive Carduelis carduelis caniceps

Goldfinches are commonly kept and bred in captivity around the world because of their distinctive appearance and pleasant song. The goldfinch males are sometimes crossed with Canary females with the intention to produce male mules with beautiful singing voices, that often capture the best singing attributes of both breeds.

Madonna of the Goldfinch by Raphael, (c. 1505–6)

Because of the thistle seeds it eats, in Christian symbolism the goldfinch is associated with Christ's Passion and his crown of thorns. The goldfinch, appearing in pictures of the Madonna and Christ child, represents the foreknowledge Jesus and Mary had of the Crucifixion. Examples include the Madonna del cardellino or Madonna of the Goldfinch, painted by the Italian renaissance artist Raphael in about 1505–6, in which John the Baptist offers the goldfinch to Christ in warning of his future. In Barocci's Holy Family a goldfinch is held in the hand of John the Baptist who holds it high out of reach of an interested cat. In Cima da Conegliano's Madonna and Child, a goldfinch flutters in the hand of the Christ child. It is also an emblem of endurance, fruitfulness, and persistence. Because it symbolizes the Passion, the goldfinch is considered a "saviour" bird and may be pictured with the common fly (which represents sin and disease).[13] The goldfinch is also associated with Saint Jerome and appears in some depictions of him.[13]

Antonio Vivaldi composed a Concerto in D major for Flute "Il Gardellino" (RV 428, Op. 10 No. 3), where the singing of the Goldfinch is imitated by a flute.

Goldfinches, with their "wanton freak" and "yellow flutterings", are among the many natural "luxuries" that delight the speaker of John Keats's poem 'I stood tip-toe upon a little hill...' (1816).[14]

In the much admired poem The Great Hunger by Patrick Kavanagh the goldfinch is one of the rare glimpses of beauty in the life of an elderly Irish farmer-

a man might imagine.... these birds the birds of paradise.

References

  1. ↑ BirdLife International (2012). "Carduelis carduelis". IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Version 2013.2. International Union for Conservation of Nature. Retrieved 26 November 2013. 
  2. ↑ Zamora, J; Moscoso J, Ruiz-del-Valle V, Ernesto L, Serrano-Vela JI, Ira-Cachafeiro J, Arnaiz-Villena A (2006). "Conjoint mitochondrial phylogenetic trees for canaries Serinus spp. and goldfinches Carduelis spp. show several specific polytomies". Ardeola 53 (1): 1–17. 
  3. ↑ Arnaiz-Villena, Antonio; Alvarez-Tejado M., Ruiz-del-Valle V., García-de-la-Torre C., Varela P, Recio M. J., Ferre S., Martinez-Laso J. (1998). "Phylogeny and rapid Northern and Southern Hemisphere speciation of goldfinches during the Miocene and Pliocene Epochs". Cell.Mol.Life.Sci. 54 (9): 1031–41. doi:10.1007/s000180050230. PMID 9791543. 
  4. ↑ Arnaiz-Villena, A; Gómez-Prieto P, Ruiz-de-Valle V (2009). "Phylogeography of finches and sparrows". Nova Science Publishers. ISBN 978-1-60741-844-3. 
  5. ↑ Zamora, Jorge; Lowy E, Ruiz-del-Valle V, Moscoso J, Serrano-Vela JI, Rivero-de-Aguilar J, Arnaiz-Villena A (2006). "Rhodopechys obsoleta (desert finch): a pale ancestor of greenfinches according to molecular phylogeny". J Ornithol 147 (3): 448–56. doi:10.1007/s10336-005-0036-2. 
  6. ↑ Arnaiz-Villena, A.; Moscoso, J.; Ruiz-del-Valle, V.; Gonzalez, J.; Reguera, R.; Wink, M.; and Serrano-Vela, J. I. (2007). "Bayesian phylogeny of Fringillidae birds: status of the singular African oriole finch Linurgus olivaceus and evolution and heterogeneity of the genus Carpodacus". Acta Zoologica Sinica 53 (5): 826–834. Retrieved 14 December 2009. 
  7. ↑ Arnaiz-Villena, A; Moscoso J, Ruiz-del-Valle V, González J, Reguera R, Ferri A, Wink M, Serrano-Vale JI (2008). "Mitochondrial DNA Phylogenetic Definition of a Group'of "Arid-Zone" Carduelini Finches". The Open Ornithology Journal 1: 1–7. doi:10.2174/1874453200801010001. 
  8. ↑ Arnaiz-Villena A, Ruiz-del-Valle V, Moscoso J, Serrano Vela JI, Zamora J. (2007). "mtDNA phylogeography of North American Carduelis pinus group of birds". Ardeola 54: 1–14. Retrieved 20 July 2010. 
  9. ↑ Clement, P., Harris, A., & Davis, J. (1993). Finches & Sparrows. Christopher Helm. ISBN 0-7136-8017-2.
  10. ↑ Svensson, L. (1992). Identification Guide to European Passerines. ISBN 91-630-1118-2.
  11. ↑ Snow, D. W. & Perrins, C. M. (1998). The Birds of the Western Palearctic concise ed. Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-854099-X.
  12. ↑ "European Goldfinch". Birdlife Australia. Retrieved 27 July 2013. 
  13. ↑ 13.0 13.1 Werness, Hope B. (2007). Animal Symbolism in World Art. Continuum. ISBN 0-8264-1913-5. 
  14. ↑ "2. I Stood tip-toe upon a little hill. Keats, John. 1884. The Poetical Works of John Keats". Bartleby.com. Retrieved 2012-12-27. 

External links

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