Identification
Yellow Birds
Most yellow birds at feeders are goldfinches, and most reports of goldfinches leaving in October are reports of goldfinches turning brown. Here is how to tell every yellow bird apart, in both plumages.
The short answer
- American goldfinches molt out of yellow every autumn and spend the winter drab olive-brown, which is why people think their finches left in October.
- Ask whether the yellow covers the whole bird or sits in patches: rump, throat, wingbar and belly patches each point to a different family.
- Lesser goldfinches have yellow undertail coverts, American goldfinches have white ones, and that mark works in every plumage and both sexes.
- An evening grosbeak is unmistakable at close range: a huge pale ivory bill, a yellow eyebrow and a bold white wing patch on a chunky, robin-sized finch.
- The yellow-rumped warbler is the one warbler that regularly uses feeders in winter, and it comes for suet, not seed.
- Warblers, tanagers and orioles are mostly not seed eaters, so fruit, jelly, mealworms and water bring them in when sunflower will not.
Yellow is a promising color for identification because there are not many yellow birds and they are spread across several unrelated families. It is also the color most likely to disappear on you. More yellow birds change plumage dramatically between summer and winter than any other color group, and the flagship case, the American goldfinch, generates more confused questions than almost anything else in backyard birding.
Two questions get you most of the way. How much of the bird is yellow: all of it, the front of it, or just a patch? And what shape is the bill: a seed-cracking cone, a fine insect-eating point, or a long oriole dagger? Those two answers usually leave a single candidate.
This guide starts with the winter goldfinch problem, because it is the reason most people arrive here in the first place, then works through the rest of the yellow birds by how much yellow they wear. The general approach is on the identify hub, and the sibling guides cover red birds, blue birds, black birds and small brown birds.
The winter goldfinch problem#
Every October a wave of people conclude that their goldfinches have migrated, that their nyjer has gone stale, or that a neighbor has better feeders. Almost none of that is true. The American goldfinch molts its body feathers twice a year, which is unusual among finches, and the fall molt takes the brilliant lemon-yellow breeding male down to a drab olive-buff bird with no black cap and a dull bill. Females and immatures are duller still. The whole flock is often still there, on the same feeder, looking like completely different birds.
| Feature | Breeding male, April to September | Winter bird, October to March |
|---|---|---|
| Body color | Brilliant lemon yellow | Drab olive-buff to grayish brown, sometimes with a faint yellow throat |
| Forehead | Solid black cap | No cap, plain |
| Wings | Black with white wingbars | Blackish with warm buff wingbars |
| Bill | Bright orange | Dull gray-pink |
| Undertail coverts | White | White, in every plumage |
| Behavior | Same: clings to nyjer feeders, bounding flight, per-chick-o-ree call in flight | Same, and often in bigger flocks |
The two constants are the white undertail coverts and the voice. The bounding, roller-coaster flight with a rising per-chick-o-ree call given on each bound is the same in January as in June, and it is the fastest way to confirm that the drab birds on your nyjer feeder are the same species that was glowing in July. Goldfinches also nest unusually late, from late June into August, timing their broods to thistle and milkweed down, so a yard that goes quiet in early summer often refills in August.
Your goldfinches did not leave, they changed clothes
American goldfinches are resident or short-distance movers across most of their range. If your nyjer feeder still has small clinging finches on it in December and they are dull olive-brown, those are goldfinches. Check the undertail coverts and listen for the flight call.
First question: how much of the bird is yellow?#
| Where the yellow is | Species | The confirming detail |
|---|---|---|
| The whole bird, with a black cap and black wings | American goldfinch, breeding male | White wingbars, bright orange bill, white undertail coverts |
| The whole bird, smaller, with a black or green back | Lesser goldfinch, male | Yellow undertail coverts and a white patch at the base of the primaries; West and Southwest |
| The whole bird, plainly, with a black beady eye and no wingbars | Yellow warbler | Males add fine chestnut streaks on the breast; a wet-thicket bird, not a feeder bird |
| Body yellow, wings and tail black, head red-orange | Western tanager, breeding male | Two wingbars, the upper one yellow and the lower white |
| Yellow body, dark brown head, huge pale bill | Evening grosbeak, male | Bold yellow eyebrow and a large white wing patch; chunky and robin-sized |
| Yellow throat and undertail, olive above, black bandit mask | Common yellowthroat, male | Skulks low in wet brush; the female has the yellow throat but no mask |
| Yellow rump, yellow side patches and yellow crown on a gray streaky bird | Yellow-rumped warbler | White throat in the Myrtle form, yellow throat in the Audubon's form |
| Yellow-orange body with grayish wings, dagger bill | Baltimore or orchard oriole, female or immature | Baltimore is larger and more orange; orchard is smaller and greener |
| Yellow where a house finch would be red | House finch, yellow morph male | Streaky brown flanks and a curved conical bill give it away |
| Fine yellow edging in the wings and tail base of a streaky brown bird | Pine siskin | Thin sharply pointed bill, crisp streaking, seen best in flight |
| Yellow wash on the belly and a yellow tail tip on a sleek crested bird | Cedar waxwing | Silky brown, black mask, red waxy wing tips on adults |
The two goldfinches#
Across the West and Southwest, the lesser goldfinch shares feeders with the American, and the pair is worth learning properly because the females are much harder than the males.
| Feature | American goldfinch | Lesser goldfinch |
|---|---|---|
| Length | 4.7 in (12 cm) | 4 in (10 cm) |
| Undertail coverts | White in every plumage | Yellow in every plumage |
| Male back | Yellow in summer, olive in winter | Solid black in Texas and the interior, greenish on the Pacific slope |
| Male cap | Black forehead patch in summer only | Black cap on the crown, kept all year |
| Wing mark | Two white wingbars | A white patch at the base of the flight feathers, plus wingbars |
| Range | Most of the continent | Southwest, California, the Great Basin and southern Rockies |
| Winter change | Dramatic, loses all yellow | Slight, stays recognizably yellow and black |
The undertail covert mark is the one to memorize. It works on females, on immatures, on winter birds and on a bird hanging upside down on a nyjer sock, which is exactly when you can see it best. A third species, Lawrence's goldfinch, occurs in California and is gray with a black face and yellow wing panels, but it is scarce and erratic and most people will never have to rule it out.
The pine siskin mixes into goldfinch flocks and confuses people every irruption winter. It is a streaky brown bird, not a yellow one, but the yellow flashes in its wings and tail catch the eye. The separator is the bill: fine and sharply pointed on a siskin, blunt and conical on a goldfinch.
The big yellow finch: evening grosbeak#
If a bird the size of a starling with a bill like a pale ivory nutcracker lands on your platform feeder, you have an evening grosbeak, and it is a good day. Males are dusky brown on the head shading to bright yellow on the body, with a broad yellow eyebrow stripe, black wings carrying a large clean white patch, and a black tail. Females are gray with a yellow-green wash, black and white wings and the same enormous bill.
They are irruptive, arriving in flocks in some winters and absent for years at a time, and they eat sunflower seed at a rate that has to be seen to be believed. Populations have declined substantially since the 1970s, so a flock is less likely now than it was for the previous generation of feeder watchers. A big open platform feeder with black oil or striped sunflower is the setup they want; they will not use a small-perched tube.
The yellow birds that are not eating your seed#
Warblers, tanagers and most orioles have fine or pointed bills and no interest in a sunflower seed. That does not put them out of reach, it just changes what you offer.
The yellow-rumped warbler is the exception that proves the rule and the only warbler most people see at a feeder in winter. It is a gray-brown streaky bird with a bright yellow rump, yellow patches on the sides of the breast and a yellow crown patch, and it can digest the waxes in bayberry and wax myrtle, which is why it winters much farther north than other warblers. At feeders it takes suet, peanut butter mixes and sometimes sunflower hearts. Eastern Myrtle birds show a white throat, western Audubon's birds a yellow one.
A western tanager is a yellow body with black wings, a black back and a red-orange head in breeding males, and it turns up at fruit, jelly and water rather than seed. A yellow warbler is uniformly yellow with a plain face and a black eye, and lives in wet willow thickets. A common yellowthroat is olive above with a yellow throat and undertail, and the male wears a broad black bandit mask edged with white above; both skulk in low, damp, tangled cover and are heard far more than seen.
Orioles: is it yellow or orange?#
People search for yellow bird with black wings and often mean an oriole. A male Baltimore oriole is flame orange and black, and a male orchard oriole is deep brick chestnut and black, so neither is truly yellow. The females and immatures are, which is where the confusion starts. A female Baltimore is yellow-orange below with grayish-brown wings and two white wingbars; a female orchard is smaller, greener and cleaner. A first-spring male orchard oriole is greenish yellow with a neat black bib and a black face, and gets reported as an unknown bird every May.
Both come readily to halved oranges, grape jelly and nectar in spring, covered in jelly for orioles and oriole feeders. Timing matters more than the food: put the feeder out a week before the first birds are expected in your area, because orioles find feeders on arrival and largely ignore them once they are on territory and eating insects.
Jelly is a supplement, not a diet
Serve grape jelly in a shallow dish, in small amounts, and stop in hot weather when it ferments or when birds are feeding nestlings. Sticky jelly on face feathers is a real hazard for young birds. Oranges, mealworms and water carry no such risk.
Which yellow birds come to feeders, and what to put out#
| Species | At feeders? | What works |
|---|---|---|
| American goldfinch | Yes, all year | Nyjer and sunflower hearts in a tube or mesh feeder |
| Lesser goldfinch | Yes, all year in the West | Nyjer and sunflower hearts |
| Pine siskin | Yes, in irruption winters | Nyjer, sunflower hearts |
| Evening grosbeak | Yes, when they irrupt | Black oil and striped sunflower on a large platform |
| Yellow-rumped warbler | Yes, in winter | Suet, suet dough, peanut butter blends |
| House finch, yellow morph | Yes, constantly | Sunflower hearts, black oil sunflower |
| Baltimore and orchard oriole | Yes, in spring | Orange halves, grape jelly, nectar, mealworms |
| Western tanager | Occasionally | Fruit, jelly, mealworms, and above all a birdbath |
| Yellow warbler and common yellowthroat | Essentially never | Native shrubs, damp cover, no pesticides, moving water |
| Cedar waxwing | No seed feeder will hold them | Fruiting shrubs and a birdbath |
For the non-seed eaters, the yard matters more than the feeder. Native plants, a bird bath with moving water and laying off pesticides will bring more yellow birds through a yard than any product will.
Finch flocks and feeder disease
Goldfinches and siskins feed shoulder to shoulder for long spells with their faces at the port, which makes finch feeders the ones most often implicated in salmonellosis outbreaks, particularly in big siskin irruption winters. If you find dead or lethargic finches, take the feeders down, clean and disinfect them and leave them down for a week or two. See salmonella at feeders and a sick bird at my feeder.
Season and region#
Goldfinches are with you all year and simply look different for half of it. Siskins, evening grosbeaks and redpolls are irruptive northern finches whose winter movements follow the boreal seed crop, so blank years are normal. Orioles and tanagers are neotropical migrants present only from spring through late summer, and in most of the country the oriole window at feeders is a few weeks in May. Yellow-rumped warblers are the reverse in the South, arriving for winter and leaving in April.
Check the feeding calendar for the timing where you are, the regional guides for who is possible, and the feeder bird finder if you would rather answer a few questions. Every species named here has a full profile in the bird guide, and attracting goldfinches and attracting orioles turn identification into a plan.
Frequently asked questions#
Where did my goldfinches go in winter?
Almost certainly nowhere. American goldfinches molt out of their yellow plumage every autumn and spend the winter drab olive-buff with no black cap and a dull bill. They are usually the same flock on the same feeder, unrecognized. Look for white undertail coverts and listen for the bounding flight and the rising per-chick-o-ree call, which do not change.
How do I tell an American goldfinch from a lesser goldfinch?
Check the undertail coverts, the feathers under the base of the tail. They are white on an American goldfinch and yellow on a lesser, in every plumage and both sexes. Lesser goldfinches are also smaller, keep a black cap year round, and have a black or greenish back depending on where in the West they live.
What is the yellow bird with black wings?
If it is bright lemon yellow with a black forehead patch and white wingbars, it is a breeding male American goldfinch. If it is larger, with a red-orange head and a black back, it is a western tanager. If it is chunky with an enormous pale bill and a yellow eyebrow, it is a male evening grosbeak.
Do warblers come to bird feeders?
Most do not, because they eat insects and have bills that cannot handle seed. The yellow-rumped warbler is the exception and visits suet and peanut butter mixes in winter across much of the country. For the others, a pesticide-free yard with native shrubs and a shallow water feature is far more effective than any feeder.
Why is my house finch yellow?
Male house finches take their color from carotenoid pigments in the food they eat while molting, and a bird that molted on a poor diet comes out orange or yellow instead of red. The yellow sits in exactly the places the red would, on the forehead, eyebrow, throat and upper breast, with the same streaky brown flanks.
When should I put out an oriole feeder?
About a week before orioles are expected in your area, which ranges from late March on the Gulf Coast to mid May in the northern states. Orioles look for food hard on arrival and lose interest once they settle on territory and switch to insects, so being a few days early matters far more than the brand of jelly.