Vol. 14 // Q: Which bird calls out "po-ta-to-chip" 🥔

Who’s heading to Bird Resort for spring break 2022? (via @thompsonwoodworks)

Found in North America

The colorful American Goldfinch is one of our favorite Finches to spot flitting around thistle fields like tiny sunbeams. 

Summer is a great time to see American Goldfinches because it’s their breeding season—and that means males’ feathers turn a brilliant yellow, with a recognizable black cap and wingtips. They fade to a duller olive in nonbreeding seasons and molt twice a year. They’re known for their lovely “po-ta-to-chip” calls, and can be spotted nesting in the hot and humid months of July and August. 

American Goldfinches love weedy fields and plains—they’re quite acrobatic and hop/fly from stem to stem, making them easier to spot than some other birds—but are also common visitors to backyard feeders (they love sunflower seed and nyjer), especially in winter. If you’d like more to come around your yard, be sure to plant native thistles and milkweed. 

Fun fact: Both the male and female in a nesting pair feed their young. At first, the male will bring food while the female feeds the young, but eventually the male is the primary feeder.

Give a Hoot

Birding bits you should know about this week

🌎 Happy Earth Day!
Audubon events marking Earth Day 2022
Celebrate our one and only planet and its incredible creatures at these gatherings for birders across the US this weekend.

☀️ Here comes the sun
Louisiana’s Grand Isle is a perfect warm-weather getaway for birders
The 1,154-acre Elmer’s Island Wildlife Refuge on the beachy Grand Isle has reopened to visitors following the devastation of Hurricane Ida, just in time for its Migratory Bird Celebration this weekend! 

🐝 The birds and the bees
Go “birding with a purpose” this spring
Have a nest in your yard? Start “Atlasing,” or noting the breeding behaviors you observe. This five-year-long project, held every 20 years, is conducted in many states to learn about bird populations to help aid conservation.

🪶 Seek the heights
Avian Rebbe seeks Jewish wisdom while birding around Austin during the pandemic
The “Avian Rebbe” talks about finding spirituality through birding in Central Texas. You can read more about his take on Jewish wisdom and birdwatching in his book, The Avian Rebbe Takes Flight.

🧊 Iceberg ahead!
Penguin Uber
Watch a quick-thinking Adélie Penguin (found in Antarctica) hitch a ride on a boat to escape a seal lurking in the waters below.

A Product We Love

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Photo by Bonnie Roe

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