Animalia > Chordata > Aves > Passeriformes > Fringillidae > Spinus > Spinus tristis

Spinus tristis (American Goldfinch)

Synonyms: Carduelis tristis; Fringilla tristis
Language: French; Spanish

Wikipedia Abstract

The American goldfinch (Spinus tristis), also known as the eastern goldfinch or "lightning bird," is a small North American bird in the finch family. It is migratory, ranging from mid-Alberta to North Carolina during the breeding season, and from just south of the Canada–United States border to Mexico during the winter. Human activity has generally benefited the American goldfinch. It is often found in residential areas, attracted to bird feeders which increase its survival rate in these areas. Deforestation also creates open meadow areas which are its preferred habitat.
View Wikipedia Record: Spinus tristis

Infraspecies

Spinus tristis jewetti
Spinus tristis pallidus
Spinus tristis salicamans
Spinus tristis tristis

EDGE Analysis

Uniqueness Scale: Similiar (0) 
1
 Unique (100)
Uniqueness & Vulnerability Scale: Similiar & Secure (0) 
13
 Unique & Vulnerable (100)
ED Score: 3.92523
EDGE Score: 1.59437
Learn more at EDGE of Existence programme

Attributes

Adult Weight [1]  13 grams
Birth Weight [3]  1 grams
Breeding Habitat [2]  Temperate eastern forests, Temperate western forests
Wintering Geography [2]  Widespread U.S.
Wintering Habitat [2]  Generalist
Diet [4]  Carnivore (Invertebrates), Nectarivore, Granivore, Herbivore
Diet - Invertibrates [4]  10 %
Diet - Nectar [4]  10 %
Diet - Plants [4]  20 %
Diet - Seeds [4]  60 %
Forages - Mid-High [4]  33 %
Forages - Understory [4]  33 %
Forages - Ground [4]  33 %
Clutch Size [5]  5
Clutches / Year [3]  2
Fledging [1]  14 days
Global Population (2017 est.) [2]  43,000,000
Incubation [3]  13 days
Mating Display [6]  Non-acrobatic aerial display
Mating System [6]  Monogamy
Maximum Longevity [3]  13 years
Female Maturity [1]  0 years 12 months

Ecoregions

Protected Areas

+ Click for partial list (100)Full list (264)

Ecosystems

Biodiversity Hotspots

Name Location Endemic Species Website
California Floristic Province Mexico, United States No
Madrean Pine-Oak Woodlands Mexico, United States No
Mesoamerica Belize, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama No

Emblem of

Iowa
New Jersey
Washington

Prey / Diet

Prey / Diet Overlap

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Predators

Accipiter cooperii (Cooper's Hawk)[8]
Accipiter striatus (Sharp-shinned Hawk)[8]
Megascops asio (Eastern Screech-Owl)[8]
Strix varia (Barred Owl)[7]

Providers

Consumers

Parasitized by 
Molothrus ater (Brown-headed Cowbird)[7]

Range Map

External References

NatureServe Explorer

Audio

Play / PauseVolume
Provided by eNature via Myxer Author: Lang Elliot

Citations

Attributes / relations provided by
♦ 1Nathan P. Myhrvold, Elita Baldridge, Benjamin Chan, Dhileep Sivam, Daniel L. Freeman, and S. K. Morgan Ernest. 2015. An amniote life-history database to perform comparative analyses with birds, mammals, and reptiles. Ecology 96:3109
♦ 2Partners in Flight Avian Conservation Assessment Database, version 2017. Accessed on January 2018.
♦ 3de Magalhaes, J. P., and Costa, J. (2009) A database of vertebrate longevity records and their relation to other life-history traits. Journal of Evolutionary Biology 22(8):1770-1774
♦ 4Hamish Wilman, Jonathan Belmaker, Jennifer Simpson, Carolina de la Rosa, Marcelo M. Rivadeneira, and Walter Jetz. 2014. EltonTraits 1.0: Species-level foraging attributes of the world's birds and mammals. Ecology 95:2027
♦ 5Jetz W, Sekercioglu CH, Böhning-Gaese K (2008) The Worldwide Variation in Avian Clutch Size across Species and Space PLoS Biol 6(12): e303. doi:10.1371/journal.pbio.0060303
♦ 6Terje Lislevand, Jordi Figuerola, and Tamás Székely. 2007. Avian body sizes in relation to fecundity, mating system, display behavior, and resource sharing. Ecology 88:1605
♦ 7Study of Northern Virginia Ecology
♦ 8Jorrit H. Poelen, James D. Simons and Chris J. Mungall. (2014). Global Biotic Interactions: An open infrastructure to share and analyze species-interaction datasets. Ecological Informatics.
Ecoregions provided by World Wide Fund For Nature (WWF). WildFinder: Online database of species distributions, ver. 01.06 Wildfinder Database
Biodiversity Hotspots provided by Critical Ecosystem Partnership Fund
Abstract provided by DBpedia licensed under a Creative Commons License
Audio software provided by SoundManager 2
Species taxanomy provided by GBIF Secretariat (2022). GBIF Backbone Taxonomy. Checklist dataset https://doi.org/10.15468/39omei accessed via GBIF.org on 2023-06-13; License: CC BY 4.0