BirdBrain Academy

Finches · Fringillidae

American Goldfinch sounds

Spinus tristis

The American Goldfinch is a small migratory North American finch, bright yellow in summer and adapted for feeding on seedheads.

Learn bird sounds freeMore American Goldfinch recordings
American Goldfinch
Photo: Rodney Campbell, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Listen to the American Goldfinch

Each recording below is a short excerpt with its spectrogram, a picture of the sound. Time runs left to right and higher pitches sit higher up. Play each one, then look for the same shape in the next. Different recordings of the same bird help you learn the bird, not one clip.

Call · recording 1 Spectrogram of a American Goldfinch call: time runs left to right and pitch rises upward

Recorded by Jonathon Jongsma, Grey Cloud Dunes SNA, Washington, Minnesota, 2014-04-18. XC175254 on xeno-canto, CC BY-SA 4.0. Five-second excerpt.

Song · recording 2 Spectrogram of a American Goldfinch song: time runs left to right and pitch rises upward

Recorded by Robert Benson, Miami Township (near Yellow Springs), Greene County, Ohio, 1990-07-02. XC756999 on xeno-canto, CC BY-SA 4.0. Five-second excerpt.

Call, Song · recording 3 Spectrogram of a American Goldfinch call, song: time runs left to right and pitch rises upward

Recorded by Doug Hynes, Whitbourne, Newfoundland and Labrador, 2011-03-09. XC935614 on xeno-canto, CC BY-SA 4.0. Five-second excerpt.

What to listen for

The song is a soft flow of musical warbles and twitters, often carrying a long note. In flight and around the nest, the American Goldfinch gives several distinct calls, from rippling flight notes to quiet nesting signals.

Many listeners write its call as “tsee-tsi-tsi-tsit”. Treat a written sound as a memory aid; individual birds and regions vary.

What it looks like

The American Goldfinch is a small finch, 11-14 cm long, with a small conical beak that is pink most of the year and bright orange after the spring molt. The male becomes brilliant lemon yellow with a jet-black cap and white rump in summer, while the female is mostly brown with a yellow bib.

Where to find it

It favors open country where weeds thrive, including fields, meadows, flood plains, roadsides, orchards, gardens, open deciduous woodlands, and riparian areas. Social outside the breeding season, it gathers in flocks and flies in a distinctive undulating, wave-shaped pattern.

BirdBrain regions that include this bird

  • California
  • Eastern Canada
  • Florida
  • Great Lakes
  • Mexico
  • Mid-Atlantic
  • New England
  • Northwest
  • Plains
  • Rocky Mountains
  • Southeast
  • Southwest
  • Texas
  • Western Canada

Did you know?

  • It is the only finch in its subfamily to undergo a complete molt.
  • Its breeding season begins in late July, unusually late for a finch.
  • The oldest known American Goldfinch was 10 years and 5 months old.

Learn the American Goldfinch by ear

BirdBrain Academy teaches bird sounds with side-by-side listening and quizzes that use different recordings, so you learn the bird rather than one clip. Start with six free lessons, no signup needed. On your phone, Sound ID can name the birds singing around you.

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Related birds

Species notes are adapted from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0, and checked for BirdBrain. Recordings come from xeno-canto under the licenses shown with each one. Photo: Rodney Campbell, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons. Identification guidance is educational; birds vary, so confirm unusual sightings with local experts or eBird.