Handbook of Nature-Study · Lesson IX · Topic 1: Bird study: how a bird is made
9. The canary and the goldfinch
Goal: Your child can compare a pet canary with the wild goldfinch, its close relative, in color, beak, song and habits.
You'll need
- A canary to watch (a friend's pet or a pet store), or good pictures and a recording of its song
- A thistle or nyjer seed feeder, or a patch of thistles, sunflowers or coneflowers where goldfinches feed
- Binoculars (optional)
- Colored pencils (yellow and black!)
- Nature notebook
What's in the book
The leading thought and method, then seventeen questions about canaries (temper, song, colors, seeds and beak, cuttlebone, drinking, eyes, feet, sleep and bath, nesting) and a second short lesson on the goldfinch, with six questions on its feeding, colors, song, flight, winter coat and late summer nest.
The lesson, step by step
When and where
Goldfinches are easiest to see from midsummer into early fall, in flocks wherever thistles and sunflowers go to seed. A feeder of nyjer seed brings them most of the year. A canary can be watched at a pet store or a friend's house in any season. Comstock's goldfinch lesson is meant for summer: she gave the questions in June and collected answers in the fall.
Keep the big idea in mind
Read these to yourself:
The canary is a very close relative of the common wild goldfinch. If we compare the habits of the two we can understand how a canary might live if it were free.
Goldfinches are seen at their best in late summer or September when they appear in flocks wherever the thistle seeds are found in abundance.
Watch the canary
Which one is the singer? Does the other one ever attempt to sing? What other notes do the canaries make besides singing?
Does the singer have more than one song? How does he act while singing?
What does the canary do to the seeds before eating them? What tools does he use to take off the shells?
Beak and feet
Notice the shape of the canary's beak. Is it long and strong like a robin's? Is it wide and sharp so that it can shell seeds?
Note the arrangement of the toes when the bird is on its perch. Is the hind toe longer and stronger? If so, why?
Find the goldfinches
Go to the feeder or the seed heads and watch quietly.
Where do you find the goldfinches feeding? How can you distinguish the father from the mother birds and from the young ones in color?
Describe the peculiar flight of the goldfinches. Do they fly high in the air? Do you see them singly or in flocks usually?
Goldfinches fly in deep dips, up and down, like a roller coaster.
Song and season
Do you know the song of the goldfinch? Is it like the song of the canary? What other notes has the goldfinch?
At what time of year do the goldfinches build their nests? Why do they build these so much later than other birds?
Goldfinches nest in mid to late summer, when thistle down and seeds are ready. Look but don't go near a nest.
Put it into words
Ask your child how a canary and a goldfinch are alike and how they are different. Then share the leading thought.
Nature notebook
Draw a male goldfinch in color, with his black cap, black wings and bright yellow body. If you saw a canary, draw it beside him. Add the date and where you saw the goldfinch.
Afterwards
If you put up a nyjer feeder, watch the male goldfinch's color through fall and winter. Comstock asks: "What change takes place in the coat of the male during the winter?"
Tip
Comstock's canary questions are many. Choose a few for a pet-store visit and save the nesting ones; they only work for families who keep canaries.