Where do American Goldfinches like to nest?

American Goldfinches are common birds across the United States. They breed across the northern half and also southern Canada. In winter most move south. Wherever you live in the United States you are likely to have American Goldfinches visit your backyard at some time during the year.

Sadly, American Goldfinches do not use nest boxes or birdhouses.

American Goldfinches nest rather late in the year--July to September. They build cup-like nests lined with thistle down in bushes and trees that are scattered about fields and open areas.

This article is a supplement to my overview page on attracting American Goldfinches. That page links to more in-depth articles on what goldfinches eat, where they are found, and telling them apart from similar species. At the end of this page I'll provide another link back to the overview page.

Immature American Goldfinch

Photo by Greg Gillson

Nesting habits and reproduction of American Goldfinches

You may notice goldfinches disappear from your feeders in early summer as they go off and begin raising a family. American Goldfinches are monogamous. They wait to begin nesting until mid-summer. Then thistledown and milkweed seed pods are available to provide food for the nestlings. They usually only produce one brood per nesting season, rarely two.

The female cares for most of the nest duties early on. She selects the location, builds the nest, incubates the eggs. The male feeds the female while she incubates the eggs. Once the eggs hatch the male starts to feed them. From that point on the male takes on more and more of the care, even exclusively feeding the fledglings for a couple of weeks after they leave the nest.

After the nesting season, American Goldfinches form back into large flocks in late fall.

Courtship and mating

Courtship for American Goldfinches generally begins in July in most of its range, May in the West. Often you may notice several males chasing after a female for up to 20 minutes. Finally she chooses one of the males as a mate. Paired birds can be recognized by the courtship flight. Both birds fly high in a large circle. The male flies slowly while fluttering his wings and holding his tail open widely. He sings the entire time. The female follows him.

At other times males sing from a hidden perch often 15-20 feet up in a tree. They sing from inside the foliage more often than from an exposed perch. But they generally choose a tree that doesn't have dense foliage.  They often sing from willows and saplings or young maple trees.

The male selects the nesting territory, flying in wide circles around the edges. Several pairs may claim the same large territory in a cooperative. But they keep their nests apart from one another and vigorously defend the immediate nest area from the others. Males defend against males and females defend against the other females.

Nest building

The female selects the exact area to build the nest. She does all the construction, though the male may bring some nesting material. It takes the female American Goldfinch about 6 days to build the nest.

The outer part of the nest is constructed with twigs or bark strips held together with spider webs or caterpillar silk. Another layer of plant fibers, such as weeds and grasses, are added to the nest. Finally, the inside of the nest is lined with fluffy plant seeds ("pappus") of thistledown and milkweed. It is so tightly constructed that the nest will hold water. The young would drown if the female didn't shield the nest from rain. The nest is about 3 inches wide on the outside, 2-1/2 inches wide on the inside.

The nest is usually placed in a shrub, sapling, or deciduous tree at the edge of a clearing, not within woods. It is often placed where 2-3 vertical branches come together. The nest may be low, from 3 feet up to 33 feet high above the ground, though frequently not much more than 10 feet high.

Oddly, the mated pair of American Goldfinches often leave the completed nest for several days, or even up to 2 weeks, before coming back to lay eggs.

Nest boxes

Sorry, American Goldfinches will not use artificial nest boxes of any type. However, they will use natural cotton batting if provided as nesting material.


Watch these parents feed their nestlings over about a week's period of time! How many chicks do you count?

Eggs

American Goldfinches lay 4-6 eggs (rarely 2-7), one each night. These eggs are about 0.65 inches long. They are bluish-white in color. Some eggs are lightly spotted.

The female alone incubates the eggs. She doesn't start incubating, though, until all the eggs are laid. That way they should all hatch on the same day. The male brings his mate food while she is on the nest. The young hatch after 12-14 days of incubation.

Young--nesting and fledglings

The goldfinch chicks hatch naked (with a little fuzzy down) and with their eyes closed--very helpless. The mother feeds the young at first, the male brings her food to feed the chicks. Soon both parents are busy feeding the hungry nestlings.

The young get fed only seeds. Very few birds feed only vegetable matter to their chicks.

The chicks grow rapidly. Their eyes open after 3 days. After 11-15 days they have completed growing their juvenile feathers. They are ready to leave the nest after 11-17 days. When the do so, they beg for food from their father. He continues with them and feeding them for up to 3 weeks after they leave the nest.

Return to overview page on American Goldfinches.