Small Colorful Fringillidae

     I was driving between fields of tall corn on both sides of a country road in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania farmland on July 30, 2017, when I saw a small blue bird land on the blacktop by the side of the road.  In a split second I thought barn swallow, eastern bluebird and adult male indigo bunting, the latter being the correct identification.
     Immediately, while driving along, I thought of the male indigos I saw along tall cornfields at this time of year in past years.  I call them indigo corn buntings because of their perching on corn stalks and singing as they would on nesting territories in hedgerows and woodland edges.  Maybe these males, probably post-breeding indigos consider the tall corn fields to be a kind of woodland, and they live and sing beautifully on the margins of them, while their mates and young grow fat and strong by eating invertebrates along real thickets of trees and bushes.
     Adult male indigo buntings are pretty in summer.  They are blue all over, while females and young are plain brown.  But the males molt late in summer and are brown on their wintering grounds in Central America during northern winters.  But by early May, indigos are back in the eastern United States ready to raise young in thickets along woodland edges, hedgerows, stream margins and roadsides.
     Fringillidae are seed-eating birds, which includes sparrows, finches, grosbeaks and buntings.  The species in this writing are colorful ones that nest in Lancaster County cropland.  All species have large beaks for cracking seeds open.  And they all also consume a variety of invertebrates during warmer months while raising youngsters.
     The attractive male blue grosbeaks are larger than the sparrow-sized indigos and dark-blue all over, with two vertical, brown bars on each wing.  Females and young are brown with darker-brown wing bars.  Blue grosbeaks raise young in thickets similar to the habitats that indigos rear offspring in.  Male blue grosbeaks sing sweet songs when perched on twigs and roadside wires.  And this species, too, goes south for the winter.  
     The beautiful male American goldfinches are bright-yellow with black wings and tails and jaunty black caps on their foreheads.  Females and young of this species are olive above and faint-yellow below, which camouflages them. 
     Goldfinches are vegetarians for the most part, feeding on alga from small brooks and seeds, especially thistle seeds, when those seeds mature in mid-summer.  It's particularly interesting to see these colorful, little birds pecking at alga on streamside rocks and swaying among the blue blooms of chicory and the pink blossoms of thistle plants while ingesting the seeds of those plants, and others.
     Female goldfinches delay nesting until July because they wait for thistle plants to go to seed.  They use thistle fluff, along with fine grass and spider webbing to create cup cradles for their young in small trees and larger shrubbery in fields, meadows and suburban lawns near patches of thistles.  And they feed pre-digested seeds, including those of thistles, to their young in their nurseries.    
     House finches are the only permanent resident species in this grouping.  They hatch young in shrubbery in hedgerows, and in bushes and young arborvitae trees on city and suburban lawns.  Males are light-gray, streaked and patched with pink on their heads, chests, wings and tails.  Females and young are feathered the same, but without the pink.
     Originally from the American west, house finches got east as cage birds that were released, found each other and raised young several years ago.  Now they have small colonies all over the east.  Males sing pretty songs early in spring, that are particularly appreciated in suburban areas, and each pair might raise up to three broods a season.  In winter, this species may come to feed at bird feeders. 
     Dickcissels are mid-western, sparrow-like birds.  Males are brown and streaked on top, and have black bibs and yellow chests.  Females and young are plain brown and streaked only, like sparrows.   
     Many dickcissels annually come east, including into Lancaster County, apparently in slightly increasing numbers each year, to nest in hedgerows, weedy patches and the edges of grain fields.  Males perch on twigs and roadside wires and sing their name "dick, dick, dick-sis,sis,sis,sis, sis" to establish nesting territories and attract mates.   
     These are pretty, intriguing nesting fringillidae that add beauty to Lancaster County cropland, a human-made habitat they adapted to.  The birds, of course, benefit from an increase in nest sites and populations.  And we aesthetically benefit from their beauties, songs and activities.