Classic bird paintings
American Goldfinch painting: Audubon's plate and other classic portraits
John James Audubon painted the American Goldfinch as plate 33 of The Birds of America (1827–38), a male and a female on a thistle, under the name Yellow Bird or American Goldfinch. You can see it free, in high resolution, on Audubon.org. The picture on this page is the octavo edition’s plate 181 (1840–44).
Updated
About this painting
This smaller version comes from plate 181 of the octavo Birds of America, which kept the male and female on their thistle. Our Audubon guide explains how the octavo prints were made.
Audubon’s American Goldfinch: plate 33, “Yellow Bird or American Goldfinch”
Audubon's plate shows the pair in spring plumage on common thistle. One August, walking up the Mohawk River in New York, he met more goldfinches in a day than anywhere else: every thistle along the canal “was ornamented with one or more Goldfinches,” tearing open the ripening heads and letting the down float away.
In Louisiana he saw small groups arrive in January and stay only a few days, feeding on opening maple buds. He also found its song so like the European Goldfinch's that, in France and England, he often thought for a moment he was hearing his own American bird.
Story: Audubon’s Ornithological Biography, vol. 1 (1831). See plate 33 free at Audubon.org.
More classic portraits, free to see
- John James Audubon, The Birds of America, octavo edition (1840–44), plate 181: “American Goldfinch” (the painting shown above). Free scan (New York Public Library Digital Collections)
- Louis Agassiz Fuertes, for Elon H. Eaton’s Birds of New York (1910–14), plate 78: “Goldfinch”, with Redpoll and Pine Siskin. Free scan (Internet Archive)
- Louis Agassiz Fuertes, for Elon H. Eaton’s Birds of New York (1910–14), plate 79: “Goldfinch”, with European Goldfinch and Evening Grosbeak. Free scan (Internet Archive)
About the American Goldfinch
- American Goldfinches climb plants such as thistles to reach the seeds. (Source: National Audubon Society)
The oldest known wild American Goldfinch lived at least 10 years and 11 months: it was banded in Maryland in 2004 and found there again in 2013. That is a record from bird banding, not a typical lifespan. (Source: USGS Bird Banding Laboratory, 2025 longevity table.) How long do wild birds live?
Buying a print?
An original plate 33 is a hand-colored sheet about 26 by 38 inches, printed in Britain in 1827–38; many prints sold today are reproductions or small 1840s octavo prints. How to tell an original from a reproduction.
In a Birdfolio, the hardcover book of your own life list, this painting sits beside the American Goldfinch with the date and place you first saw one. See your own list as a book, free.