European Goldfinch in Valhalla, New York (1 Viewer)

[OwlTalon]

I seen Eurasian Wigeon over here. Probably blown across.

 

[fishercl]

An update to this old post. The European Goldfinch continued to come to my house through August 2008 - so I had 4 good seasons with it. It would arrive here as early as January each year and leave in August. Alas, it has not been seen in 2009.

 

[Gretchen]

Thanks! Nice to have longitudinal reports! By the way, did you have only one in 2006-2008, or did you continue to have 2 (or more)?

 

[fugl]

Here's an interesting recent account of the history & current status of the European Goldfinch in North America.
http://www.umd.umich.edu/dept/rouge_river/EUGO-NAB.PDF

 

[Mysticete]

This past spring I had a Linnet (!) at Tawas Point State Park, in Michigan. No idea how it got there, but almost certainly an escapee.

I am fairly sure your goldfinches are not a natural vagrant. In fact, wasn't there a introduced population in your region some a couple of decades ago? I remember seeing an old field guide including them.

 

[fugl]

I am fairly sure your goldfinches are not a natural vagrant. In fact, wasn't there a introduced population in your region some a couple of decades ago? I remember seeing an old field guide including them.

You're thinking, I imagine, of the deliberately introduced population on Long Island which perisisted there for a number of decades before dying out in the 1970s or thereabouts. IIRC, there's a good account of the Long Island population in the finches volumes (published in the late 1960s) of A. C. Bent's classic Life Histories series. Several field guides of the period--the early Petersons, for example--included the European Goldfinch on the strength of this population.

 

[Mysticete]

Indeed I am. I remember seeing them in the Audubon Field Guide to Birds my Grandma had, when I was a wee lad.

 

[Reuven_M]

Just a note: I once saw in a pet shop next to the cages with budgies, canaries, zebra finches etc., a cage with European goldfinches, chaffinches and greenfinches.