Plate 33,  American Goldfinch  $300

Print size: 26 1/4" x 39 1/4"; image size: 11 1/2" x 18 1/2"  Paper is a brighter off-white.

This print is based on a composition probably painted in August 1824 in New York State, for Audubon wrote:  "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."

The goldfinch, a joy to even the most casual observer, is common from ocean to ocean, and its flight call as it dips through the air, per-chic-o-ree, per-chic-o-ree, is as sweet as that of any caged canary.  Dr. Frank M. Chapman, in his Handbook of Birds of Eastern North America, says that "their song is delivered with an ecstasy and abandon which carries them off their feet, they circle over the field sowing the air with music." EHJ