Species - Goldfinch (Carduelis carduelis)
Location - Various
Grid Ref - Various
The Goldfinch has a bright red face with a flash of yellow on its wings. You can generally find them in small groups around tree tops, they have a lovely twittering song, and they are also regular visitors to my bird feeder.
They can be found in most places around the UK and can be seen all year round. The nest is built entirely by the female and is generally completed within a week. The male accompanies the female, but does not contribute. The nest is neat and compact and is generally located several meters above the ground, hidden by leaves in the twigs at the end of a swaying branch. It is constructed of mosses and lichens and lined with plant down such as that from thistles.
In the poem The Great Hunger by Patrick Kavanagh, the goldfinch is one of the rare glimpses of beauty in the life of an elderly Irish farmer:
“The goldfinches on the railway paling were worth looking at. A man might imagine then. Himself in Brazil and these birds the birds of paradise”
