Note: this is the full article by Guest Contributor MELISSA BLOCK. An excerpt is featured in the March/April 2019 edition of our Bird’s-Eye View Newsletter NEST DESCRIPTION : Cardinals Males sometimes bring nest material to the female, who does most of the building. She crushes twigs with her beak until they’re pliable, then turns in the nest to bend the twigs…
One of the latest nesting songbirds, American Goldfinches don’t get started on nesting until late June or early July. This appears to be timed with the life cycle of the late blooming thistle plant which provides both nesting material and food for goldfinches. This correlation between the thistle seed ripening and goldfinch nesting may explain why goldfinches seem so much…