The presence of European Goldfinches in Wisconsin led me to look at the
eBird map for the species. https://ebird.org/species/eurgol
There is a concentration of the species in northern Illinois and Wisconsin,
plus Detroit and New York, with scattered sightings from Virginia to New
Hampshire. One possible sighting west of the Mississippi south of St.
Louis, and many in California, especially the Bay Area.
Paul Sullivan
From: Paul Sullivan [mailto:paultsullivan@xxxxxxxxxxxx] ;
Sent: Tuesday, March 17, 2020 8:47 PM
To: obol@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: European Goldfinches are in Wisconsin
I am subscribed to The Passenger Pigeon, the journal of the Wisconsin
Society for Ornithology.
From the Spring 2016 field notes:
"European Goldfinch
Reported from. five counties. significantly up from two counties reporting
it in Spring 2015 and Spring 2014. . A high count of 13 . on March 4. This
was the highest count in five years. Breeding was confirmed."
From the Winter 2018-2019 field notes::
"European Goldfinch
A non-native species, but it is important to track their spread in the
state. Reported from three counties with a high count of 50 birds in
Kenosha County."
Just so you know.
Paul Sullivan
------------------
On Tue, Mar 17, 2020 at 3:19 PM Hendrik Herlyn <hhactitis@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
In addition, the West Asian subspecies of the European Goldfinch (Carduelis
carduelis caniceps), sometimes split as a separate species, looks quite
different from the European one in that it lacks the black pattern on the
head. The bird in Clackamas Co. is clearly of the European subspecies, which
is even more unlikely to reach the Western US on its own (there are a few
records of vagrant caniceps in Japan).
Still a very pretty bird, but I don't think it warrants a "tick" on the
Oregon list. :)
Happy birding
Hendrik
