Goldfinch, the official bird of Washington State is very seldom seen and if you do see one, it’s best to stop and admire its striking bright yellow feathers with the black wing and tail feathers. They are very shy and as soon as they see any movement it will quickly dart away before your eyes can see where it flew.
Today one suddenly flew by and landed on a tall spring grass giving it a good position to remove the berries from a nearby grass. It sat there for a long time removing seeds until it saw me moving and then swish it was off.
SKETCHING ON WHIDBEY ISLAND 
Thank you, applepear. It’s amazing the thin blade of grass can hold the weight of the goldfinch
LikeLike
wonderful observation!
LikeLike
Thank you, Leslie. Once in a while, if I am not blinking an eye, I’ll see them fly quickly thought our property
LikeLike
Wonderful delicate sketch of the Goldfinch. If I feed them, they come. Otherwise I don’t see them at all.
LikeLike
Paula, Sometimes I have to use my bird book to identify if the bird is an oriole or goldfinch due to their similar markings. I think some of the orioles in our area have red heads and that helps me with the identification.
LikeLike
Beautiful bird, looks like our Golden Oriole, that has black-yellow males too.
LikeLike
Thanks for the info; I know there are several species that change the color of their feathers during mating season but I did not know the Goldfinch change color during this time. They dart around so fast and try to keep out of sight making it difficult to observe them well.
LikeLike
Wonderful sketch! I put finch feed in my bird feeder a couple years ago and got lots of bright gold finches! My friend the ornithologist explained to me this is the male breeding plumage. The rest of the year the males are not as bright.
LikeLike