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Until California Condor chicks hatched in the wild mature, produce and raise chicks of their own, and become countable on a birder’s “Life List”, Lawrence’s Goldfinches will remain #1 on the most wanted poster of California birds. Each spring it is usual for us to receive inquiries from ABA members around the country (Oklahoma, Maryland) as to where the caller might find this little, mysterious, uncommon goldfinch.
No one contacted us this year! If they had, our answer would have been all over the place right here in the Tehachapis. Annually, Lawrence’s Goldfinches are recorded in the Tehachapi Mountains Birding Club listing area. Its abundance is coded as Uncommon (“U”) which designates it as a bird which is “present, but easily missed”. This bird could be listed as “R” (rare), meaning “seldom seen”. Somewhere in-between might be more proper in any given year. However, not this year!
This season this little goldfinch was found near running water in any number of birdie areas. They were present at “Lake George” during the TMBC annual meeting and potluck dinner. Lawrence’s were seen on the May club bird walk along Brite Creek in Paradise Valley. Goat Springs was very “birdie” this spring, including good numbers of Lawrence’s. They also are found in the spring-side willows of “Devil’s Kitchen”.
Along the High Country Trail, in a place we call “Bunting Hollow”, we found a family of these exotic little finches. A bit later, when we reached the Water Canyon campground, at close range, Lawrence’s Goldfinches were drinking and bathing in the wetlands patch. These birds were in a mixed flock with Lesser Goldfinches, thus providing an interesting plumage comparison.
Another mixed flock of Lesser, Lawrence’s, and House Finches (of all hues) were observed bathing in the shallow waters of Wild Rose (AKA Oak) Canyon below the Equestrian Center. Lawrence’s were also recorded drinking and bathing in a pond at a private residence high up on El Rancho. This pretty much covers all of Bear Valley!
Female Lawrence’s lack the distinctive black face of the male. Both have an unusual pale shade of gray and an off hue of yellow on their wing coverts, wings and under-body. In his guide to birds, Sibley reproduces the different and unusual shade of yellow most accurately of all the illustrated guides. The Stokes guide has the best pictures.
This one-half ounce, four and three-quarter inch bird, although it will eat an occasional insect, is a seed eater, foraging in the weeds, shrubs and trees. They may forage in flocks and may even nest in loose colonies. They are open nesters (pensile cup), sometimes as high as 40 feet in a tree. They lay three to six seldom marked pale bluish white eggs. The male feeds the incubating female, and both parents feed the nestlings.
Unfortunately, except at very close range, I seldom can hear a Lawrence’s Goldfinch’s voice. Jean can. She says it’s a high tinkle. In literature it is said that the call note is a sharp, high note, while the song is described as a rapid warble composed of the call notes of other species. It is generally thought that no part of this bird’s song is purely its own.
Kenn Kaufman, in Lives Of North American Birds, refers to Lawrence’s Goldfinches as “somewhat mysterious” – and mysterious they are. Their habitat varies from weedy, brushy farmlands in winter, to oak woodland, open pine woods, stream-side trees, pinyon-juniper woodlands, and sometimes chaparral in the spring-summer breeding season. Rather eclectic, although it does seem to us, almost always near running water.
In the winter these birds occasionally “invade” the southwestern deserts, usually Arizona, though sometimes reaching as far as New Mexico and southern Texas. This is a kind of irruptive behavior seen in a number of bird species. In some years this goldfinch may entirely disappear in winter! Very probably they will have gone to Baja.
Further, Lawrence’s do not seem to have strong fidelity to either specific breeding or wintering grounds. In fact they have been known to nest in the southwestern states! It is not known whether this moving about is migration related, nomadic wandering, “irruptive” behavior (typical of several species), or is simply related, as in most birds, to food and water availability. A mysterious bird indeed.
It is well known that “my bird” is the Sandhill Crane. We have sought out this bird all over the west including Nebraska. Of course, we are also very close to California Condors – often very close. Although Turkey Vultures take more of our time than any other species, I never tire of observing and counting those shaggy thunderbirds.
However, it’s the Verdins, Winter Wrens, Red-breasted Nuthatches, Brown Creepers, Red Crossbills, and Lawrence’s Goldfinches, who make birding enjoyable. Little, colorful, unusual, hard to find species with unique behavioral characteristics, are the birds which addicts birders to the game.
Good birding, gone birding.
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