I was in the courtyard today with my camera intending to take some photos of Bob planting a couple of new xeriscape acquisitions when I noticed this little goldfinch taking seeds from the front feeder. He was not startled by my appearance in the courtyard and just stayed perched on the feeder taking the Nyjer seeds. I approached him and got several shots like the one above before he finally took off.
I looked up goldfinch on Wikipedia and found that there are several varieties of them. The ones that come around here are called the Dark Backed “Lesser” Goldfinch. They are a very small songbird according to the Wikipedia Article:
The lesser goldfinch or dark-backed goldfinch (Spinus psaltria) is a very small songbird of the Americas. Together with its relatives the American goldfinch and Lawrence’s goldfinch, it forms the American goldfinches clade in the genus Spinus sensu stricto.
The American goldfinches can be distinguished by the males having a black (rarely green) forehead, whereas the latter is (like the rest of the face) red or yellow in the European goldfinch and its relatives. North American males are markedly polymorphic and 5 subspecies are often named; at least 2 of them seem to represent a less-progressed stage in evolution however.