American Goldfinch by John James Audubon art print

An archival premium Quality art Print of the American Goldfinch by John James Audubon for sale by Brandywine General Store. These small colorful songbirds were plate or picture number 33 in the great ornithology book, The Birds of America published by Audubon in the 1st part of the 19th century. This print shows a male and female Goldfinch perched in a thistle bush, with the thistle in full purple bloom. The gold finch is notorious for eating thistle seeds and scattering them all throughout the country, much to the chagrin of farmers and landowners.The Pennsylvania Dutch called the Goldfinch bird the distelfink and was a sign of good fortune.

Audubon said of this bird "In ascending along the shores of the Mohawk river, in the month of August, I have met more of these pretty birds in the course of a day's walk than anywhere else; and whenever a thistle was to be seen along either bank of the New York canal, it was ornamented with one or more Goldfinches. They tear up the down and withered petals of the ripening flowers with ease, leaning downwards upon them, eat off the seed, and allow the down to float in the air. The remarkable plumage of the male, as well as its song, are at this season very agreeable; and so familiar are these birds, that they suffer you to approach within a few yards, before they leave the plant on which they are seated. For a considerable space along the Genessee river, the shores of Lake Erie, Lake Ontario, and even Lake Superior, I have always seen many of them in the latter part of summer. They have then a decided preference for the vicinity of water." Audubon bird print #33