Golden Standard Time
by Diane Cooledge Porter
(reprinted from The Backyard Bird newsletter, vol. 7, no. 4, August, 2004)
(songbird notes index) (home)
 IN 19TH CENTURY ENGLAND,...it was fashionable to plant flower clocks. These were special gardens, often shaped like the face of a clock, in which flowers opened or closed at predictable times, such as morning glories, which close at noon, and four-o'-clocks, which open at four in the afternoon. The gardener could invite guests for a stroll in the garden and amuse them by telling time by the flowers. Plants, and birds as well, are living clocks and calendars, sun powered and synchronized by the rhythms of nature. Learning to read them is one of the great entertainments that nature offers. Here is a bird calendar you can consult in your own backyard. If you maintain bird feeders, keep your eye on American goldfinches. In winter, goldfinches are rather drab birds, mostly olive brown and gray, well camouflaged to help them avoid the clutches of predators. Male and female look nearly alike through the cold months. STRANGE DISGUISEBut in March, goldfinches begin to molt into breeding plumage, fresh spring feathers that are much brighter and more splendid than winter garb. However, the first stages of spring molt make goldfinches look downright scruffy. Some of the birds sprout dark flecks on their foreheads, where new black feathers are pushing up between the wintry olive browns, temporarily detracting from the birds' sleek appearance. Gradually the black feathers turn into shiny black caps, jauntily tipped to the front of the head. It becomes easy to tell the sexes apart, because only half the goldfinches get caps--the males. Meanwhile, bright golden splotches appear at odd places on the plumage, startlingly brilliant against the old drab feathers. One bird may get a gold spot on its cheek or chin, another on its back. The splotches multiply and spread as old feathers are pushed out of their follicles by new ones and blown away. By the end of March, half gold and half olive, goldfinches don't look much like the illustrations in bird-identification books. But if you've been watching a flock of goldfinches all winter, you will penetrate their disguise. TRANSFORMATION COMPLETEIn May, goldfinches have completed their molt. The males' backs and breasts have turned to purest gold, their wings and tails are black and white, and the handsome black caps catch every eye. (Fine plumage helps a male attract a mate.) Females also get new feathers, but their colors are subtler, with greenish backs and heads and a softer yellow on the breast. In the Midwest and East, American goldfinches remain together in flocks throughout spring. They remind me of revelers dressed up for a wedding who hold an extended party before getting on with the ceremony. They delay nesting until July or August, much later than other songbirds. They synchronize their breeding season with the bloom of wild thistles that have the soft thistledown they use to line their nests and seeds they feed to their young. In California and other parts of the West, where the goldfinches use other food sources for the young, they nest in spring like other songbirds. I appreciate their tardy habits for the pleasure it gives me to find songbirds nesting in late summer. FULL CIRCLEAfter nesting, goldfinches molt into winter plumage once again. However, a season of wear has already taken its toll on their feathers, so when the new feathers come in you don't notice the striking patchwork pattern of spring. Having molted, the goldfinches pass the winter in their modest attire. Their calendar year has come full circle. Many other stories have closed and opened while the goldfinches changed. Nature has many rhythms. And yet by noticing the seasonal changes in the garb of the goldfinch, we sense the pulse of the whole. |
