Find the Goldfinch

I’m in the mid-summer photographic doldrums, but on most days I carry my small camera and a lens around on my walks through the city park near my house. I do often see wildlife out there that might be fun to shoot. In one corner of the park I walk by a patch of sunflowers that are pretty enough, and I noticed that the goldfinches like to visit the sunflowers for seeds, so I set about shooting them.

I stopped near the flowers and took out my camera. The birds were immediately a bit leery of me, but luckily they soon began to ignore me and focus on the sunflowers. This was an early Saturday morning and the birds were in and out of the shadows so I had to shoot when they got a little light. It was also not always easy to pick them out of the yellow flowers as they are small birds and quite well camouflaged in the sunflowers.

These birds are technically called the Lesser Goldfinch as apparently there is also an American Goldfinch that is slightly larger. I see the Lesser Goldfinches all the time on flowering plants in the neighborhood. The Lesser Goldfinches are sexually dimorphic, meaning the males and females have a different appearance. The goldfinch in the photo above is a male as you can tell by the black cap on his head and generally darker feathers on his back. The females lack the black cap and have generally lighter colored back feathers; see the photo below.

I was trying to shoot around a large black railed fence in the background as man-made objects can be distracting in a wildlife or nature photo. But, I had to work with where this guy was posing for me. I was also shooting through gaps in the foliage so that limited my shooting angle as well. The fence is blurry but you can definitely see it.

These photos (except the second one) were shot hand-held with a Nikon Z50 and NIKKOR Z DX 50-250mm f/4.5-6.3 VR kit lens. This is small and lightweight gear, and if fits into a small pouch I can strap over my shoulder so it’s easy to walk around with. This camera has a smaller sensor, lacks in-body image stabilization, and the image quality of the lens is not as good as my main camera kit, but it is much smaller, less than half the weight, and lower cost which makes it great for casual walks or hikes.

Maybe it’s just me, but I really like the way these birds look among the sunflowers. Or maybe I am just desperate to shoot photos of something. Thanks for reading.

25 thoughts on “Find the Goldfinch”

  4. I am really thinking that I need to add goldfinches to my sunflower kitchen. Its not just you, the goldfinches look great among the sunflowers! Glad you took the pictures. I think the blurred fence adds to the photo, I like it. That photo and the close up of the female goldfinch are my favorites.

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  5. American Goldfinches are common in the Siouxland/Midwest area, Finches are fun to shoot in general. And anytime and any subject (well, most any subjects) are open season to photograph. My emphasis of what I photographed a few years ago has definitely changed and I shoot a lot of birds and critters these days compared to what I previously spent time on photographing. At least you are taking the camera on your walks. Really nice, and fun images.
    And never share your secrets. Who would know if a goldfinch did a touch and go off the back of an armadillo? 🤫🫣🥸

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