North Central Texas surprise last New Year's Day (1 Viewer)

[Scrogdog]

Exactly a year ago today, I saw this at one of my backyard feeders. Probably a once in a lifetime sighting for this part of the world.

 

[fugl]

An escaped cage bird, I imagine. Or is there a feral population of European Goldfinches in Decatur?

 

[Scrogdog]

After spotting my bird last year, which came to the feeders three or four separate times that day, I checked for previous sightings that might have been reported during the annual Great American Backyard Bird Count that takes place in February. The only European Goldfinch sightings reported anywhere in Texas since 1998 during that event took place in 2003, and, interestingly enough, there were three sightings that year with two of them being in Decatur and the other in Terrell, which is about 30 miles east of Dallas and 90 miles from my fairly rural location 40 miles northwest of Fort Worth, so there could possibly be some around here that are feral, but just haven't been reported or noticed by most people. I left to take a seven day cruise a couple of days after my sighting and have never seen the bird again since I returned.

 

[KC Foggin]

Well I sure wouldn't mind having one come to my feeders

 

[Scrogdog]

K.C., I know I certainly didn't mind. Probably the highlight of my bird watching experiences. At first, I didn't even know what I had and couldn't find anything like it in the North American Field Guide and finally posted a photo on the Bird Identification forum and got several responses from birders in Europe. Knew it looked similar to the American Goldfinches that it was feeding with, but the red head and some of the other color markings just didn't compute.