In our garden we had to put bird netting over our Swiss Chard and beets as the American Goldfinches eat holes in the leaves of these vegetables. I believe both of these plants have a fairly high in calcium. Wilson Cady
Columbia River Gorge, WA

---------- Original Message ----------
From: Scott Ramos <lsr at ramoslink.info>
To: Tweeters Newsgroup <tweeters at u.washington.edu>
Subject: [Tweeters] Herbivorous American Goldfinch
Date: Wed, 15 Aug 2018 07:41:14 -0700


The other day while at Magnuson Park, I observed a small flock of American Goldfinch feeding in the pond scum while hanging on to branches above the water. At first, I thought they were picking seeds off the water but closer looks revealed they were eating some sort of pond grass. BNA comments that they are primarily granivorous but there are reports of them eating green algae. A reminder that most birds are opportunists.
https://youtu.be/n3biNP6vmdo Scott RamosSeattle
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