In the past few weeks I’ve been seeing a few Goldfinches (Spinus tristis) coming to my feeders. They return for the seeds that I put out, hulled sunflower seed and nyjer seed.

They’re dressed in their winter garb. Males hardly recognizable without their brilliant yellow body feathers, and trademark, rich black foreheads. In the next month or so both both males and females will begin their molts to trade-in winter feathers for summer plumage. After the molt starts, in the in-between stage, they have a strange mottled look. This happens twice a year. Once in late winter and again in late summer.