American Goldfinch - Taxonomy

Taxonomy

The American Goldfinch was one of the many species originally described by Linnaeus in the landmark 1758 10th edition of his work Systema Naturae. It was initially included in the genus Spinus, a group containing New World goldfinches and siskins, but in 1976, Spinus was merged into the genus Carduelis as a subgenus. Its closest relatives are the Lesser Goldfinch (C. psaltria), Lawrence's Goldfinch (C. lawrencei), and the siskins. Although it shares a name with the European Goldfinch, the two are in separate subgenera and are not directly related. Carduelis is derived from carduus, the Latin word for thistle; the species name tristis is Latin for 'sorrowful'. There are four recognized subspecies of the American Goldfinch:

• C. t. tristis is the most common of the subspecies. Its summer range is from southern Canada to Colorado, and east to the Carolinas. Its winter range is from southern Canada south to Florida and central Mexico.
• C. t. pallidus is differentiated from other subspecies by its paler body color, stronger white markings and, in males, a larger black cap. It is slightly larger than C. t. tristis. The summer range is from British Columbia to western Ontario, south to Colorado and west to Oregon. In winter, the range extends from southern Canada and northern California, south to Mexico.
• C. t. jewetti is smaller and darker than the other subspecies. It occurs on the coastal slope of the Cascade Mountains from southern British Columbia to central California, overlapping with the range of C. t. pallidus.
• C. t. salicamans occurs west of the Sierra Nevada range during the summer and in south and central Baja California to the Mojave Desert and Colorado Desert in winter. In winter, the plumage of both sexes is browner than other subspecies, and in summer, the male's black cap is smaller than that of other subspecies. This subspecies has been called the Willow Goldfinch.