European Goldfinch Life History

Habitat

European Goldfinches breed in a variety of lightly wooded habitats, avoiding only large forests and completely treeless areas. They occur in open woodlands (deciduous, coniferous, and mixed), forest edges, orchards, parks, gardens, hedgerows, and grasslands with scattered trees and shrubs. During the winter, flocks of European Goldfinches descend on fallow and overgrown fields, feeding on thistles, teasels, burdocks, and other plants.

Food

Adult European Goldfinches feed mainly on seeds, especially from plants in the sunflower family. They also eat plant buds, flowers, and fruits, as well as small numbers of insects. During the nesting season, adults feed mostly insects to the nestlings. European Goldfinches are acrobatic foragers, perching atop or hanging upside-down from seeding plants. They use their long, pointed bill to extract seeds from open seedheads or puncture closed heads to get at ripening seeds.

Nesting

Nest Placement

The female builds the nest in a tree or shrub, typically hiding it in dense vegetation at the ends of twigs. Nest height varies between 1.5 and 10 meters (5–33 feet).

Nest Description

A bulky cup built with wool, plant fibers, plant down, and spiderwebs. The inside of the nest is lined with plant down and wool, with hair and feathers sometimes added as well.

Nesting Facts

Behavior

European Goldfinches are vocal birds, calling so frequently that birders often detect them by sound before they are seen. These finches fly in an undulating pattern and often call while in flight. During the breeding season, goldfinches forage in pairs or small flocks. During the nonbreeding season they often form large flocks, sometimes with hundreds or thousands of individuals. European Goldfinches usually flock with members of the same species, but they sometimes flock with other finches.

European Goldfinches form mating pairs in late winter, while still in flocks. Courtship behavior includes bill touching, short chases, courtship feeding of the female by the male, and a display in which the two birds face each other about 15 cm (6 inches) apart and each swings its body from side to side. The female builds the nest, incubates the eggs, and does almost all brooding of the chicks. Both sexes feed the nestlings, which fledge after 13–18 days.

Conservation

The International Union for Conservation of Nature lists European Goldfinch’s conservation status as Least Concern. Although its population trend appears to be decreasing, this species has an extremely large population size (estimated as 101–155 million mature individuals) and an extremely large range.

Credits

BirdLife International. 2019. Carduelis carduelis. The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2019: e.T103764950A152615959. https://dx.doi.org/10.2305/IUCN.UK.2019-3.RLTS.T103764950A152615959.en

Clement, P., A. Harris, and J. Davis (1993). Finches and Sparrows: An Identification Guide. Christopher Helm, London, UK.

Jonsson, L. (1992). Birds of Europe with North Africa and the Middle East. Christopher Helm, London, United Kingdom.

Kirwan, G. M., N. Moura, P. Clement, P. Pyle, and P. F. D. Boesman (2024). European Goldfinch (Carduelis carduelis), version 1.2. In Birds of the World (G. M. Kirwan, B. K. Keeney, and S. M. Billerman, Editors). Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, NY, USA. https://doi.org/10.2173/bow.eurgol.01.2

Sibley, D. A. (2014). The Sibley Guide to Birds, second edition. Alfred A. Knopf, New York, NY, USA.

Stokes, L. Q. and M. A. Young (2024). The Stokes Guide to Finches of the United States and Canada. Little, Brown and Company, New York, NY, USA.

Svensson, L., K. Mullarney, and D. Zetterström (2009). Collins Bird Guide. Second edition. HarperCollins, London, UK.

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