The friendly finch that is worth its weight in gold

It’s one of the earliest signs of spring. Sometime in February or March, that dull grayish green finch coming to your feeder will come into full bloom, brandishing the brilliant yellow and black raiment of a male American Goldfinch in breeding plumage, a designer bird.

- BY PETE DUNNE

Males will wear these courtin’ cloths until fall when the birds revert, back into cryptic winter garb. But March through October, this common and widespread finch is a delight to the senses. Festooning themselves across weedy fields, these sunlight-colored acrobats feed almost exclusively upon seeds.