American goldfinch
Spinus tristis
Bird
Small seed-eating songbird that feeds heavily on composite-flower seeds in late summer and fall — especially Echinacea, Rudbeckia, sunflower, and aster seeds. Goldfinch is the canonical reason NC State Extension's standing advice for these plants is 'leave seed heads standing through winter.'
Plants in the catalog
Seed plants · 20
One of the canonical late-summer goldfinch food sources; goldfinch breeding timing in much of North America is synchronized with sunflower seed maturation.
Goldfinches and other small seed-eating birds will pick seed from spent marigold heads in late season; leaving some heads to ripen supports this foraging.
American goldfinches eat the soft, early-spring elm samaras when little other seed is available; the tie is real but opportunistic, so it is graded plausible rather than documented.
Composite seed heads feed goldfinches and other small seed-eating songbirds through fall and winter when seeds are allowed to dry on the plant.
The abundant small seed on the ripe spikes is taken by seed-eating finches; goldfinches readily forage low weedy seed heads, inferred from the genus's known value as bird seed rather than species-cited.
Goldfinches and other small seed-eating birds can pick over the ripening seed heads in fall if stems are left standing.
Goldfinches pick seed from the rounded ripening heads in late summer and fall — a reason to leave spent blooms standing at season's end.
Small seed-eating birds will pick over ripening or spilled oat grain where heads are left standing, a common draw of small-grain plantings.
Cosmos left to set seed is a noted food source for seed-eating songbirds; NC State Extension lists the plant as attracting birds.
Seed-eating finches will take the small seeds from dandelion heads, one of many wild composite seeds in their diet.
NC State: "Goldfinches eat the seeds with relish." Leave the standing seedheads through winter for goldfinch + other songbird forage.
Small-seeded finches feed on hemlock seed from the drooping cones in fall and winter; goldfinches and their relatives (siskins, crossbills) are typical visitors to seeding conifers, so the association is plausible as a generic finch-seed tie.
Small finches pick seed from the ripened standing heads in fall — a reason to leave the final flush uncut.
Goldfinches and other small finches eat the seeds from spent blanketflower heads in late summer and fall; leaving seedheads standing supports this foraging.
Small-seeded finches feed on spruce seed shed from the large pendulous cones in fall and winter; goldfinches and their relatives (siskins, crossbills) are typical visitors to seeding conifers, so the seed-foraging tie is plausible as a generic finch-on-conifer association.
Goldfinches feed heavily on Echinacea seed heads in late summer and fall — the canonical reason to leave seed heads standing.
Missouri Botanical Garden PlantFinder notes local songbird populations — particularly finches — love to feed on the seeds, and recommends saving seed heads to feed birds in winter.
Range
Across North America; migrates seasonally within its range.