Our June Bird Study: Lesser Goldfinches Eat My Sunflowers

Sunflowers in our garden (self-seeded). Tasty snack for the goldfinches.

Bird Study for the June Newsletter Challenge

We have a beautiful songbird in our backyard that sings to us as we garden. He often is seen in our finch feeder but he also has another part of his diet that is interesting. The Lesser goldfinch eats our sunflower's leaves! They must be so very light because they can land on the leaves and they hardly dip under the weight. They nibble the green parts of the leaves and leave holes and skeleton leaves on the plants.

I found this video on YouTube.com that shows what we observed in our garden.

Lesser goldfinch eating sunflower leaves

I caught this Lesser goldfinch in our birdbath....bathing and singing.

There is a lesson in the Handbook of Nature Study (Lesson 10) and a previous Outdoor Hour Challenge (Yellow Birds) for the goldfinch which includes this link: Get Gorgeous Goldfinches! The article gives you tips for attracting and then feeding your own goldfinches. If you would like to hear the goldfinches song, you can listen at AllAboutBirds.com.

We used a photo and the notebook page from the June Newsletter.

We read on AllAboutBirds.com that the Lesser goldfinch sometimes makes its nest in among grapevines to shade the nest from the sun. We think our finches are nesting in our grapevines that are near our back birdfeeder. I never thought to look there.

We love these little birds and even though they cause a little mischief in the sunflower patch, we hope they stick around for awhile.

This is the last of our June Newsletter Challenges. We were able to complete all four this time.
Here are links to the other three:
Garden Critter: Honeybee
Tree: Sitka Spruce
Crop Plant: Corn

Now for our Tweet and See list for June 2011
Backyard and Neighborhood:

1. Turkey vultures
2. Steller's jay
3. Oak titmouse
4. Lesser goldfinch
5. Anna's hummingbirds
6. California quail
7. Western scrub jays
8. Mourning doves
9. Acorn woodpecker
10. Common raven
11. Wild turkeys
12. Cooper's hawk
13. White-breasted nuthatch
14. California towhee
15. Spotted towhee
16. House finches
17. American crows

Trip to Oregon-There were more birds that I didn't know so I can't list:

1. Osprey
2. Brown pelican
3. Song sparrow
4. American crows
5. Turkey vultures
6. American robins
7. White-crowned sparrows
8. Western gull
9. California quail
10. Black oysercatcher
11. Winter wren

Happy Birding!