Brilliant Birds Sparkle In Sun.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 19241, 1 December 1930, Page 8

Brilliant Birds Sparkle In Sun.

Nature Notes

By James Drummond, F.L.S. , F.Z.S. Q,N FARMS and country roads in Canterbury just now, goldfinches, brilliantly displaying crimson, yellow, brown, black, and white, elegant in shape, volatile, graceful, charming in demeanour, flitting in the sunshine like varied jewels, are one of the prettiest sights of this season. They are social, and almost always go about in small flocks. If a vote were taken to determine the most brilliant birds in New Zealand, the award would go to them. No native bird can compare with them in regard to high colours.

Seeds of the Scotch thistle and of th« Californian thistle they seem to like bettei than any other food. Photographed in a characteristic attitude, a goldfinch would be shown clinging to a Scotch thistle, picking out the seeds, and scattering the soft dowr to the wind. A goldfinch’s nest often is found in £ small tree or a shrub, made of grass, moss lichens, roots, and twigs, lined, perhaps with thistle-down, hairs, and feathers. Ir it there may be four or five small and deli cate eggs, bluish-white, thinly spotted wit! reddish-brown and pale purple.