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Lesser Goldfinch

The Lesser Goldfinch (Spinus psaltria) is a very small songbird of the Americas. Together with its relatives the American goldfinch and Lawrence's goldfinch, it forms the American goldfinches clade in the genus Spinus.

The American goldfinches can be distinguished by the males having a black (rarely green) forehead, whereas the latter is (like the rest of the face) red or yellow in the European goldfinch and its relatives. North American males are markedly polymorphic, and five subspecies are often named.

The lesser goldfinch was formally described by the American zoologist Thomas Say in 1822 under the binomial name Fringilla psaltria. The specific epithet psaltria is Ancient Greek for a female harpist. The lesser goldfinch is now placed in the genus Spinus that was introduced in 1816 by the German naturalist Carl Ludwig Koch.

This petite species is not only the smallest North American Spinus finch it may be the smallest true finch in the world.

Lesser Goldfinch

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