Turning Yellow

I hadn't really given it much thought, but I see - looking at this relatively small gathering of American Goldfinches at the café this morning - that the males don their breeding plumage on their own clearly varying schedules. Some of them are in full yellow bloom already, some have barely gotten started. Goldfinches, as I understand it, wait until much later than most of our songbirds to lay eggs and raise their young. They wait until the various seeds that are their preferred food are widely available - often not getting started on a family until well into July! Meanwhile a lot of the birds are probably already sitting on eggs, or very close to it.

As you can see, there are also a couple of White-throated Sparrows at the café who are still faffing around here when they should be heading north to their breeding grounds! They'll all be gone in a few weeks, for sure - along with the Juncos, many of whom are still with us.