Common in flocks in weedy fields, bushy thickets and in seed-bearing trees. Food includes thistles, sunflowers and dandelions. Female and young are recognized by the unstreaked back and breast, stubby finch bill, wingbars, notched tail, whitish rump, and undulating roller-coaster flight. Male in winter and immature resemble female.
Song is long, high and sweet.
Goldfinches are about 5 inches long. They are smaller than a sparrow. The breeding male is bright yellow with a white rump, black forehead, white edges on black wings and tail, and yellow at bend of wing. Late in the summer, the female goldfinch lays 4 or 5 pale blue eggs in a well-made cup of grass, bark strips and thistle down. The nest is placed in the fork of a small sapling or shrub.