Lesser Goldfinch

Description:

Small American songbird, black cap(head), duller yellow than the American Goldfinch.

Habitat:

This individual spotted with mate(dull brown) along Southern Californian Chaparral. Specifically- Vicente Bluffs Nature Reserve 'Lesser Goldfinches feed in weedy fields, budding treetops, and the brush of open areas and edges.' -The Cornell Lab of Ornithology

Notes:

I see these chaps more than half the times I go outdoors hiking around my home in Southern California. They are always mucking around in brush, where seeds are readily available. According to my field guides, they flock in huge numbers, but the times I have seen Lessers are when they were feeding with their mates~always with their mates. I have never seen one without its mate... interesting. Safety reasons? Their calls consist of a long series of wheezes and chits.. and many more sounds stolen from other birds.