He’s checking us out!

American Goldfinches are another of those local birds I don’t remember seeing at all, growing up here. Last year, a few showed up in our feeding station, but not often.

Now, we get huge masses of them! Sometimes, I’ll count a dozen or more in the lilac bush, and another dozen on the ground.

And that’s just counting the brightly coloured males! The females started showing up later, and they are much more camouflaged on the ground.

I found myself wondering, as I resized this photo; just how old is this lilac, for that branch to be so thick!