Goldfinches like crabapples too...or at least the seeds inside them!

While the American Robin (from this earlier post) was plucking berries from the tree and swallowing them whole, a sweet little American Goldfinch was employing an entirely different method to get his lunch. He would pierce the skin with his sharp, pointed beak and work through the pulp until he found a seed. He left the remaining skin and pulp on the tree.

An American Goldfinch perched outside my living room window gives me the eye as I photograph him eating the seeds in the crabapples.

...here he is piercing the skin. He then neatly rooted through the pulp until he found a seed.

Here he's getting ready to go back into the crabapple. If you look at all the berries, you can see those he's neatly picked through and left hanging on the branches.