State birds
What is the New Jersey state bird?
The New Jersey state bird is the eastern goldfinch, which birders call the American Goldfinch. Chapter 283 of the Laws of 1935, approved June 27, 1935, made it official, and the statute today, 52:9A-1, says: “The eastern goldfinch is hereby designated as the New Jersey state bird.”
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Did New Jersey senators whistle down the state bird bill?
So the story goes, and the New Jersey State Library tells it. When Senator Dryden Kuser's bill was first read, the library says, citing a New York Times article of March 13, senators “whistled drowning out Senator Kuser's oration,” and the bill failed by four votes.
Kuser tried again in May. A still doubtful Senator Cole offered other candidates, “a crow, buzzard, sparrow or pigeon,” on the grounds that people saw those birds more often. This time the bill passed unanimously, on May 13, 1935, the library says.
Governor Harold G. Hoffman signed it on June 27, 1935.
When did the goldfinch become New Jersey's state bird?
On June 27, 1935. The State Library prints the bill and the law: Senate No. 241, “An act to create a New Jersey State bird,” introduced on January 29, 1935, by Mr. Kuser, became Chapter 283 of the Laws of 1935, “Approved June 27, 1935.” The Department of Military and Veterans Affairs cites the same chapter.
The whole act is two sentences long: the eastern goldfinch “is hereby designated as the New Jersey State bird,” and the act “shall take effect immediately.”
The bill's statement gave just one reason: “Forty-four of the States have already designated State birds.” Kuser himself, the library says, suggested the goldfinch “for its bright, cheerful appearance and melodious song.”
Today the law is section 52:9A-1 of New Jersey's statutes, which the State Library traces to “L. 1935, c. 283, § 1, p. 913.”
Is the eastern goldfinch the same as the American Goldfinch?
Yes. In 1935, “Eastern Goldfinch” was the bird's official English name: the American Ornithologists' Union's Check-list of North American Birds of 1931 lists Spinus tristis tristis as the “Eastern Goldfinch” (AOU Check-list, 1931). Iowa used the same name for its state bird in 1933.
Today's lists call the whole species the American Goldfinch, Spinus tristis (AviList). Monmouth County's park naturalists put it plainly in 2013: the state bird “is listed as the Eastern Goldfinch,” but the correct term is American Goldfinch (Monmouth County Park System).
The State of New Jersey still says eastern goldfinch on its symbols page, which describes bright yellow feathers with a black head and wings.
Do goldfinches stay in New Jersey all winter?
Yes, though many people never notice them. “Goldfinches live year-round in New Jersey,” the State Library says, yet “many New Jerseyans have never seen one,” because the birds usually sit high in trees unless a feeder draws them down.
Winter makes them harder to spot. The goldfinch is one of the few North American birds that molt twice a year, the library notes, and in winter even the males turn yellowish-brown to gray, says the National Audubon Society's guide.
Their numbers vary from year to year. The goldfinch is “irregular in migration,” the guide adds, with more staying in the North in winters when food is plentiful.
The library calls goldfinches strict vegetarians, and seeds are most of what they eat. The Audubon guide adds buds, the bark of young twigs and even maple sap, and describes the birds climbing “acrobatically” over thistles to reach the seeds.
What did Audubon notice about goldfinches?
How sociable they are. A flock flying past “will alter its course at the calling of a single one” perched in a tree, he wrote in 1831, and once the birds land, the whole party preens and then performs “a little sweet concert” (Audubon's text, vol. 1).
He described the flight, too, “in deep curved lines, alternately rising and falling,” with two or three notes on each rise.
The picture on this page is the octavo plate 181; Audubon's large Havell version is plate 33. In 2026 the State Library of Massachusetts chose plate 33 to stand for New Jersey in its 250th-anniversary series of birds from the thirteen original colonies, on show from August 11 to September 8. More goldfinch paintings are on our American Goldfinch painting page.
Where can you see goldfinches in New Jersey?
At a thistle feeder, for a start. In 2013 the Monmouth County Park System sent goldfinch watchers to the Manasquan Reservoir Environmental Center's bird viewing area, where goldfinches “are common visitors to our thistle feeders.”
In spring, the county's naturalists wrote, the males “dress up” in a gold-yellow tuxedo with a black “top hat.” For a home yard they suggested a thistle feeder and a birdbath; the state's symbols page adds that eastern goldfinches “love to eat sunflower seeds.”
Out in the open, look along weedy roadsides, woodland edges, orchards and fields with thistles, the places the Audubon guide lists for goldfinches in every season.
For the oldest goldfinch on record, see our page of the oldest wild birds.
Which other states have the goldfinch as their state bird?
Two: Iowa, which also says eastern goldfinch and adopted it on March 22, 1933, and Washington, whose 1951 law names the willow goldfinch. All three goldfinch states chose the bird between 1933 and 1951.
New Jersey's neighbors went other ways: New York chose the Eastern Bluebird, Pennsylvania the Ruffed Grouse and Delaware the blue hen chicken.
Questions about the New Jersey state bird
When did New Jersey adopt the eastern goldfinch as its state bird?
In 1935. Chapter 283 of the Laws of 1935 was approved on June 27, 1935; the law is now 52:9A-1.
Why did New Jersey choose the goldfinch?
Senator Dryden Kuser proposed it for its bright, cheerful look and its song, the State Library says; the bill itself noted that 44 states already had birds.
Is the eastern goldfinch the same as the American Goldfinch?
Yes. Eastern Goldfinch was the bird's name in the ornithologists' Check-list of 1931; today it is called the American Goldfinch.
Do goldfinches stay in New Jersey in winter?
Yes. They live in New Jersey all year, in duller colors in winter, say the State Library and the National Audubon Society's guide.
What is New Jersey's state bird and flower?
The eastern goldfinch is the state bird, and the violet is the state flower. A 1913 resolution first named the violet, and a 1971 law made the common meadow violet the state flower, the New Jersey State Library says.
What is New Jersey's state animal?
The horse, New Jersey's state animal since 1977. A horse's head also appears on the state seal.
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