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.

You’re a scruffy little goldfinch, aren’t you!

This little fellow looks like he’s in for a wardrobe change. His feathers are getting a bit blotchy and splotchy. He also has bud crumbs all over his little beak.

Ignoring the sunflower seeds, Scruff opted 

instead for a salad of crabapple buds! 

…you could at least wipe your bill, little Scruff!

I always think of American Goldfinches as seed eaters. They hop back and forth between our thistle feeders and visit the platform or tube feeders for sunflower seeds just as often. They also seem to have fun hanging over the side of giant sunflowers pulling out and eating the seeds one by one, or taking apart a black-eyed susan or purple coneflower, but until yesterday, I had never watched one pick apart and eat the green buds on a tree. Our little fellow seemed quite excited munching on the crabapple greenery. He would search out a bud, nip at it until it was gone and then search out another! Definitely a salad lover. I hope I have leaves and flowers on this tree later in the spring!

…and for dessert, I’ll have the crabapples too!

After the Northern Cardinal (from a previous entry) left the crabapple tree, this little chickadee flew in for a taste.

If you look closely under his right foot, you can see evidence 

of the 17-year Cicadas that visited us early in the summer. 

In an article written by Matthew St. George, called Cicadas to emerge in Cincinnati are soon to make their music, we learn:

These bugs are offspring of the Brood XIV cicadas, which emerged in 1991, said Dan Balser, a specialist with the Ohio Department of Natural Resources Division of Forestry. Broods are groups of cicadas that emerge during the same year after the soil temperature reaches 65. "Each brood is known for a specific geographic region," Balser said. "The cicadas are on a 17-year life cycle and spread all over the eastern part of the United States." Cicadas don't bite people or carry diseases. They do, however, damage trees, especially young ones.

But our Chiggy doesn’t seem to care about 

the damage, he’s just enjoying the crabapple.

Unlike the cardinal, he is eating the pulp. Chickadees are quite the little scavengers and are not picky eaters at all in winter. In an interesting article written by By Nancy Bazilchuk called Resourceful Chickadees Triumph Over Winter, she writes:

Some researchers have found chickadees pecking the fat off a dead deer's body. They'll monopolize suet feeders, clean out your bird feeder, and strip hemlock cones. They feed on maple sap icicles -- the ones that form on the end of a snapped sugar maple twig in spring. The average chickadee needs to eat food that's comparable in energy value to 250 sunflower seeds a day.

…no wonder he’s not wasting the pulp!

I know there's a seed in here somewhere...

Red really seems to like the fruit, but if you notice, he’s leaving the skin and pulp behind and going for the seeds inside.


Cardinals and grosbeaks have bills strong enough to crack hard seed shells and tend to ignore the pulp and skin.

On Tuesday, this guy perched right outside my living room window in the crabapple tree. Unfortunately, there were not many crabapples this year due to the horrible ice storm that killed most of the blossoms last year. Yesterday, another ice storm swept through, encasing the few remaining crabapples in ice. Luckily he noticed them Tuesday!