European goldfinch

Did You Know?

• The European goldfinch originated in the late Miocene-Pliocene and belongs to the clade of cardueline finches.
• Its closest relatives include greenfinches, crossbills, and redpolls.
• The species was introduced to Bermuda, Canada, the United States, Mexico, Peru, Argentina, Chile, the Falkland Islands, Uruguay, Brazil, South Africa, Australia, and New Zealand in the 19th century.

Taxonomy

The European goldfinch first appeared in scientific literature in 1555, when Swiss naturalist Conrad Gessner described and illustrated it in his work Historiae animalium. Carl Linnaeus gave the species its first formal scientific name, Fringilla carduelis, in the 1758 tenth edition of his Systema Naturae. The word carduelis is Latin for 'goldfinch'. Today, the bird belongs to the genus Carduelis, which French zoologist Mathurin Jacques Brisson established in 1760 using Linnaeus's species name. Genetic research shows the European goldfinch is closely related to the grey-crowned goldfinch, the citril finch, and the Corsican finch. The English term 'goldfinch' was first recorded in the late 1300s, in Geoffrey Chaucer's unfinished The Cook's Tale. Ten subspecies are currently recognized, after the grey-headed caniceps group was split off as a separate species. These subspecies include C. c. britannica (British Isles), C. c. carduelis (mainland Europe and Scandinavia), C. c. parva (Iberia, northwest Africa, and the Canary Islands and Madeira), C. c. tschusii (Corsica, Sardinia, Sicily), C. c. balcanica (Balkans, Greece, Crete, northwest Turkey), C. c. niediecki (southwest Asia and northeast Africa), C. c. brevirostris (eastern Turkey, Caucasus, northwestern Iran), C. c. colchica (Crimea and northern Caucasus), C. c. volgensis (southern Ukraine, southwestern Russia, northwestern Kazakhstan), and C. c. frigoris (western Siberia). The former caniceps group, which included subspecies C. c. caniceps, C. c. paropanisi, C. c. subulata, and C. c. ultima, was reclassified as the grey-crowned goldfinch by the International Ornithological Congress in 2023.

Description

The European goldfinch averages 12–13 cm in length, with a wingspan of 21–25 cm and a weight of 14–19 g. Males and females are similar, both having a red face, black and white head, warm brown upperparts, white underparts with buff flanks and breast patches, and black and yellow wings. On close inspection, males can often be distinguished by a larger, darker red mask that extends just behind the eye, and black shoulder feathers, whereas females have brown shoulder feathers and a red face that does not extend past the eye. The bill is ivory-coloured, long, and pointed, and the tail is forked. In breeding condition, the bill is pale with a grey or black mark at the tip; at other times it is darker. Juveniles have a plain head and greyer back but are unmistakable due to the yellow wing stripe. Adults moult after breeding, with some starting in July and others not finishing until November; after moult, birds appear less colourful until the feather tips wear away. The song is a pleasant silvery twittering, and the call is a melodic tickeLIT.

Behaviour and ecology

The female European goldfinch handles all the nest building, usually finishing in about a week while the male simply tags along without helping. The nest is tidy and snug, placed several meters up, hidden by leaves and twigs at the tip of a branch that sways in the wind. It is constructed from moss and lichen, lined with soft plant down like thistle fluff, and fastened to the branch with spider silk. A deep cup shape keeps the eggs from rolling out during storms. A few days after the nest is ready, the female lays eggs one by one in the early morning. A typical clutch holds four to six eggs, which are whitish with reddish-brown speckles, smooth and slightly shiny. Each egg measures about 17.3 by 13.0 millimeters and weighs around 1.53 grams. The female sits on the eggs for 11 to 13 days, and the male brings her food. Once the chicks hatch, both parents feed them, starting with a mix of seeds and insects, then gradually reducing the insects as the chicks grow. The female keeps the young warm for the first 7 to 9 days. The chicks leave the nest 13 to 18 days after hatching, and both parents keep feeding them for another week or so. Most pairs raise two broods each year, sometimes three. The goldfinch’s favorite foods are small seeds, like beige sunflower hearts and those from thistles, cornflowers, and teasels, though it also eats insects when feeding its young. In winter, they gather in flocks of up to 40 or more and visit backyard feeders, especially those with niger seed. Their tweezer-like bills let them pry out tricky seeds. One bird in Armenia managed to eat 30 sunflower seeds in just one hour.

Relationships with humans

European goldfinches are commonly kept and bred in captivity worldwide due to their distinctive appearance and pleasant song. However, if kept with domestic canaries, they tend to lose their native song and call in favour of their cagemates' songs, which is considered undesirable. In 19th century Great Britain, many thousands were trapped each year to be sold as cage birds, and one of the earliest campaigns of the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds was directed against this trade. Wildlife conservation efforts aim to limit bird trapping and destruction of their open-space habitats. Steglitz, a borough of Berlin, is named after the European goldfinch, and the surname Goldspink is based on the Scots word for the bird. In Christian symbolism, because it eats thistle seeds, the European goldfinch is associated with Christ's Passion and his crown of thorns. It appears in paintings of the Madonna and Christ child, representing the foreknowledge of the Crucifixion, as in Raphael's Madonna del Cardellino (about 1505–6), where John the Baptist offers a goldfinch to Christ. It also appears in Barocci's Holy Family and Cima da Conegliano's Madonna and Child. The bird is considered an emblem of endurance, fruitfulness, and persistence, and because it symbolizes the Passion, it is seen as a 'saviour' bird and may be pictured with a common housefly. It is also associated with Saint Jerome. Antonio Vivaldi composed a Concerto in D major for Flute 'Il Gardellino' (RV 428, Op. 10 No. 3) imitating the goldfinch's song. An anonymous Italian Neapolitan poem titled Il Cardellino was set to music by Saverio Mercadante and sung by Jose Carreras. John Keats' poem 'I stood tip-toe upon a little hill...' (1816) mentions the birds among natural 'luxuries'.