{"id":87844,"date":"2020-07-26T06:10:19","date_gmt":"2020-07-26T12:10:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.featheredphotography.com\/blog\/?p=87844"},"modified":"2020-07-26T12:01:06","modified_gmt":"2020-07-26T18:01:06","slug":"american-goldfinches-dont-eat-insects-or-do-they","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.featheredphotography.com\/blog\/2020\/07\/26\/american-goldfinches-dont-eat-insects-or-do-they\/","title":{"rendered":"American Goldfinches Don’t Eat Insects. Or Do They…"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>American Goldfinches aren’t supposed to be insect eaters but apparently this male didn’t get the memo.<\/p>\n<p> <\/p>\n<p>In yesterday’s post I mentioned that three days ago I’d photographed both Yellow Warblers and an American Goldfinch on thistles as they were feeding on insects. Late yesterday Dan Gleason made a comment on that post that included the following:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><em>“You mentioned that the birds were eating the insects on the thistle, but in the case of the Goldfinch, that would not be the case. Insects are eaten by goldfinches only as an accident. They will not deliberately seek insects for food. Nearly all songbirds take insects to feed their young as seeds are hard to digest and insects provide easily available protein. But American Goldfinches are an exception feeding raw seeds from day one.”<\/em><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p> <\/p>\n<p>When it comes to birds Dan knows his stuff. Before he retired he taught ornithology on the college level for over 30 years, he and his wife Barbara own a Wild Birds Unlimited store in Oregon and he regularly provides knowledgeable, insightful and reliable natural history information about birds in his comments to my posts so what he said gave me pause. Maybe I didn’t see what I thought I saw. So I did some further research and looked at my photos much more carefully.<\/p>\n<p>Cornell’s Birds of the World largely backs up what Dan said. Here’s their take on what American Goldfinches eat:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><em>“Seeds of many annual plants, Compositae preferred, and small seeds of various tree species, including alder (Alnus), birch (Betula), northern white-cedar (Thuja occidentalis), and elm (Ulmus). Prefer black thistle among feeder seeds, but will take sunflower (shelled or as hearts; KJM). Insects only as encountered.”<\/em><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p> <\/p>\n<p>To me “insects only as encountered” suggests that goldfinches rarely eat insects and only when they happen upon them accidentally in their search for their normal diet of seeds, which is pretty darn close to what Dan said – insects eaten “only as an accident.” My takeaway from both Dan and Birds of the World is that American Goldfinches are not known to deliberately seek out insects as food.<\/p>\n<p>But that’s certainly what this male goldfinch was doing in the Wasatch Mountains three days ago.<\/p>\n<p> <\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-attachment-id=\"87852\" data-permalink=\"https:\/\/www.featheredphotography.com\/blog\/2020\/07\/26\/american-goldfinches-dont-eat-insects-or-do-they\/american-goldfinch-3006-ron-dudley\/\" data-orig-file=\"https:\/\/www.featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/american-goldfinch-3006-ron-dudley.jpg\" data-orig-size=\"720,900\" data-comments-opened=\"1\" data-image-meta=\"{"aperture":"6.3","credit":"RON DUDLEY","camera":"Canon EOS 7D Mark II","caption":"","created_timestamp":"1595486919","copyright":"","focal_length":"700","iso":"800","shutter_speed":"0.0003125","title":"","orientation":"1"}\" data-image-title=\"american goldfinch 3006 ron dudley\" data-image-description=\"\" data-image-caption=\"\" data-medium-file=\"https:\/\/www.featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/american-goldfinch-3006-ron-dudley-240x300.jpg\" data-large-file=\"https:\/\/www.featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/american-goldfinch-3006-ron-dudley.jpg\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-87852 size-full\" title=\"american-goldfinch-3006-ron-dudley\" src=\"https:\/\/www.featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/american-goldfinch-3006-ron-dudley.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"720\" height=\"900\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/american-goldfinch-3006-ron-dudley.jpg 720w, https:\/\/www.featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/american-goldfinch-3006-ron-dudley-240x300.jpg 240w, https:\/\/www.featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/american-goldfinch-3006-ron-dudley-120x150.jpg 120w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 720px) 100vw, 720px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>I found him on thistle that was literally crawling with both aphids and the ants that attend them.<\/p>\n<p>Some of the following photos of this bird are lacking in quality because they’re all huge crops (only 6% of the original image, 1.2 MP of 20 MP) and because for some reason my photos of him weren’t quite as sharp as usual. I don’t know why, it just happens sometimes.<\/p>\n<p>But they’re plenty good enough for documentary purposes.<\/p>\n<p> <\/p>\n<p> <\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-attachment-id=\"87845\" data-permalink=\"https:\/\/www.featheredphotography.com\/blog\/2020\/07\/26\/american-goldfinches-dont-eat-insects-or-do-they\/american-goldfinch-2957-ron-dudley\/\" data-orig-file=\"https:\/\/www.featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/american-goldfinch-2957-ron-dudley.jpg\" data-orig-size=\"900,720\" data-comments-opened=\"1\" data-image-meta=\"{"aperture":"6.3","credit":"RON DUDLEY","camera":"Canon EOS 7D Mark II","caption":"","created_timestamp":"1595486899","copyright":"","focal_length":"700","iso":"800","shutter_speed":"0.0003125","title":"","orientation":"1"}\" data-image-title=\"american goldfinch 2957 ron dudley\" data-image-description=\"\" data-image-caption=\"\" data-medium-file=\"https:\/\/www.featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/american-goldfinch-2957-ron-dudley-300x240.jpg\" data-large-file=\"https:\/\/www.featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/american-goldfinch-2957-ron-dudley.jpg\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-87845 size-full\" title=\"american-goldfinch-2957-ron-dudley\" src=\"https:\/\/www.featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/american-goldfinch-2957-ron-dudley.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"900\" height=\"720\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/american-goldfinch-2957-ron-dudley.jpg 900w, https:\/\/www.featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/american-goldfinch-2957-ron-dudley-300x240.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/american-goldfinch-2957-ron-dudley-768x614.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/american-goldfinch-2957-ron-dudley-150x120.jpg 150w, https:\/\/www.featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/american-goldfinch-2957-ron-dudley-350x280.jpg 350w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 900px) 100vw, 900px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Aphids come in a variety of sizes and colors and some have wings. Here the goldfinch appeared to be picking off one of the darker ones.<\/p>\n<p> <\/p>\n<p> <\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-attachment-id=\"87846\" data-permalink=\"https:\/\/www.featheredphotography.com\/blog\/2020\/07\/26\/american-goldfinches-dont-eat-insects-or-do-they\/american-goldfinch-2958-ron-dudley\/\" data-orig-file=\"https:\/\/www.featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/american-goldfinch-2958-ron-dudley.jpg\" data-orig-size=\"900,643\" data-comments-opened=\"1\" data-image-meta=\"{"aperture":"6.3","credit":"RON DUDLEY","camera":"Canon EOS 7D Mark II","caption":"","created_timestamp":"1595486899","copyright":"","focal_length":"700","iso":"800","shutter_speed":"0.0003125","title":"","orientation":"1"}\" data-image-title=\"american goldfinch 2958 ron dudley\" data-image-description=\"\" data-image-caption=\"\" data-medium-file=\"https:\/\/www.featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/american-goldfinch-2958-ron-dudley-300x214.jpg\" data-large-file=\"https:\/\/www.featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/american-goldfinch-2958-ron-dudley.jpg\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-87846 size-full\" title=\"american-goldfinch-2958-ron-dudley\" src=\"https:\/\/www.featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/american-goldfinch-2958-ron-dudley.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"900\" height=\"643\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/american-goldfinch-2958-ron-dudley.jpg 900w, https:\/\/www.featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/american-goldfinch-2958-ron-dudley-300x214.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/american-goldfinch-2958-ron-dudley-768x549.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/american-goldfinch-2958-ron-dudley-150x107.jpg 150w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 900px) 100vw, 900px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>In the next shot in the burst that aphid is gone from the thistle stalk and is now in the bill of the goldfinch. It also appears to have wings.<\/p>\n<p> <\/p>\n<p> <\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-attachment-id=\"87847\" data-permalink=\"https:\/\/www.featheredphotography.com\/blog\/2020\/07\/26\/american-goldfinches-dont-eat-insects-or-do-they\/american-goldfinch-2960-ron-dudley\/\" data-orig-file=\"https:\/\/www.featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/american-goldfinch-2960-ron-dudley.jpg\" data-orig-size=\"900,643\" data-comments-opened=\"1\" data-image-meta=\"{"aperture":"6.3","credit":"RON DUDLEY","camera":"Canon EOS 7D Mark II","caption":"","created_timestamp":"1595486900","copyright":"","focal_length":"700","iso":"800","shutter_speed":"0.0003125","title":"","orientation":"1"}\" data-image-title=\"american goldfinch 2960 ron dudley\" data-image-description=\"\" data-image-caption=\"\" data-medium-file=\"https:\/\/www.featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/american-goldfinch-2960-ron-dudley-300x214.jpg\" data-large-file=\"https:\/\/www.featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/american-goldfinch-2960-ron-dudley.jpg\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-87847 size-full\" title=\"american-goldfinch-2960-ron-dudley\" src=\"https:\/\/www.featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/american-goldfinch-2960-ron-dudley.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"900\" height=\"643\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/american-goldfinch-2960-ron-dudley.jpg 900w, https:\/\/www.featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/american-goldfinch-2960-ron-dudley-300x214.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/american-goldfinch-2960-ron-dudley-768x549.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/american-goldfinch-2960-ron-dudley-150x107.jpg 150w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 900px) 100vw, 900px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Two frames later he’s about to swallow the aphid.<\/p>\n<p> <\/p>\n<p> <\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-attachment-id=\"87848\" data-permalink=\"https:\/\/www.featheredphotography.com\/blog\/2020\/07\/26\/american-goldfinches-dont-eat-insects-or-do-they\/american-goldfinch-2964-ron-dudley\/\" data-orig-file=\"https:\/\/www.featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/american-goldfinch-2964-ron-dudley.jpg\" data-orig-size=\"900,643\" data-comments-opened=\"1\" data-image-meta=\"{"aperture":"6.3","credit":"RON DUDLEY","camera":"Canon EOS 7D Mark II","caption":"","created_timestamp":"1595486900","copyright":"","focal_length":"700","iso":"800","shutter_speed":"0.0003125","title":"","orientation":"1"}\" data-image-title=\"american goldfinch 2964 ron dudley\" data-image-description=\"\" data-image-caption=\"\" data-medium-file=\"https:\/\/www.featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/american-goldfinch-2964-ron-dudley-300x214.jpg\" data-large-file=\"https:\/\/www.featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/american-goldfinch-2964-ron-dudley.jpg\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-87848 size-full\" title=\"american-goldfinch-2964-ron-dudley\" src=\"https:\/\/www.featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/american-goldfinch-2964-ron-dudley.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"900\" height=\"643\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/american-goldfinch-2964-ron-dudley.jpg 900w, https:\/\/www.featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/american-goldfinch-2964-ron-dudley-300x214.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/american-goldfinch-2964-ron-dudley-768x549.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/american-goldfinch-2964-ron-dudley-150x107.jpg 150w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 900px) 100vw, 900px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Then he went after the other dark aphid higher up on the stalk.<\/p>\n<p> <\/p>\n<p> <\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-attachment-id=\"87849\" data-permalink=\"https:\/\/www.featheredphotography.com\/blog\/2020\/07\/26\/american-goldfinches-dont-eat-insects-or-do-they\/american-goldfinch-2972-ron-dudley\/\" data-orig-file=\"https:\/\/www.featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/american-goldfinch-2972-ron-dudley.jpg\" data-orig-size=\"720,900\" data-comments-opened=\"1\" data-image-meta=\"{"aperture":"6.3","credit":"RON DUDLEY","camera":"Canon EOS 7D Mark II","caption":"","created_timestamp":"1595486901","copyright":"","focal_length":"700","iso":"800","shutter_speed":"0.0003125","title":"","orientation":"1"}\" data-image-title=\"american goldfinch 2972 ron dudley\" data-image-description=\"\" data-image-caption=\"\" data-medium-file=\"https:\/\/www.featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/american-goldfinch-2972-ron-dudley-240x300.jpg\" data-large-file=\"https:\/\/www.featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/american-goldfinch-2972-ron-dudley.jpg\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-87849 size-full\" title=\"american-goldfinch-2972-ron-dudley\" src=\"https:\/\/www.featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/american-goldfinch-2972-ron-dudley.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"720\" height=\"900\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/american-goldfinch-2972-ron-dudley.jpg 720w, https:\/\/www.featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/american-goldfinch-2972-ron-dudley-240x300.jpg 240w, https:\/\/www.featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/american-goldfinch-2972-ron-dudley-120x150.jpg 120w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 720px) 100vw, 720px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>But he didn’t discriminate against the green aphids, he ate them too.<\/p>\n<p> <\/p>\n<p> <\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-attachment-id=\"87850\" data-permalink=\"https:\/\/www.featheredphotography.com\/blog\/2020\/07\/26\/american-goldfinches-dont-eat-insects-or-do-they\/american-goldfinch-2982-ron-dudley\/\" data-orig-file=\"https:\/\/www.featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/american-goldfinch-2982-ron-dudley.jpg\" data-orig-size=\"720,900\" data-comments-opened=\"1\" data-image-meta=\"{"aperture":"6.3","credit":"RON DUDLEY","camera":"Canon EOS 7D Mark II","caption":"","created_timestamp":"1595486912","copyright":"","focal_length":"700","iso":"800","shutter_speed":"0.0003125","title":"","orientation":"1"}\" data-image-title=\"american goldfinch 2982 ron dudley\" data-image-description=\"\" data-image-caption=\"\" data-medium-file=\"https:\/\/www.featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/american-goldfinch-2982-ron-dudley-240x300.jpg\" data-large-file=\"https:\/\/www.featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/american-goldfinch-2982-ron-dudley.jpg\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-87850 size-full\" title=\"american-goldfinch-2982-ron-dudley\" src=\"https:\/\/www.featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/american-goldfinch-2982-ron-dudley.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"720\" height=\"900\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/american-goldfinch-2982-ron-dudley.jpg 720w, https:\/\/www.featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/american-goldfinch-2982-ron-dudley-240x300.jpg 240w, https:\/\/www.featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/american-goldfinch-2982-ron-dudley-120x150.jpg 120w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 720px) 100vw, 720px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>He seemed to completely ignore the ants and only eat aphids. Immediately after this shot was taken his bill was directly behind the thistle stalk where I couldn’t see it but based on the movements of his head I’m sure he was gobbling down aphids. A few frames in the burst later….<\/p>\n<p> <\/p>\n<p> <\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-attachment-id=\"87851\" data-permalink=\"https:\/\/www.featheredphotography.com\/blog\/2020\/07\/26\/american-goldfinches-dont-eat-insects-or-do-they\/american-goldfinch-2999-ron-dudley\/\" data-orig-file=\"https:\/\/www.featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/american-goldfinch-2999-ron-dudley.jpg\" data-orig-size=\"900,720\" data-comments-opened=\"1\" data-image-meta=\"{"aperture":"6.3","credit":"RON DUDLEY","camera":"Canon EOS 7D Mark II","caption":"","created_timestamp":"1595486918","copyright":"","focal_length":"700","iso":"800","shutter_speed":"0.0003125","title":"","orientation":"1"}\" data-image-title=\"american goldfinch 2999 ron dudley\" data-image-description=\"\" data-image-caption=\"\" data-medium-file=\"https:\/\/www.featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/american-goldfinch-2999-ron-dudley-300x240.jpg\" data-large-file=\"https:\/\/www.featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/american-goldfinch-2999-ron-dudley.jpg\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-87851 size-full\" title=\"american-goldfinch-2999-ron-dudley\" src=\"https:\/\/www.featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/american-goldfinch-2999-ron-dudley.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"900\" height=\"720\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/american-goldfinch-2999-ron-dudley.jpg 900w, https:\/\/www.featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/american-goldfinch-2999-ron-dudley-300x240.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/american-goldfinch-2999-ron-dudley-768x614.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/american-goldfinch-2999-ron-dudley-150x120.jpg 150w, https:\/\/www.featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/american-goldfinch-2999-ron-dudley-350x280.jpg 350w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 900px) 100vw, 900px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>his bill was covered with green aphids as he raised his wings to aid in turning on the perch.<\/p>\n<p> <\/p>\n<p>In the roughly two minutes I spent with this bird on the thistle I took 120 photos of him as he very deliberately searched for aphids and ate them. He never once closely approached a flower head where seeds would be found, instead he was always lower on the stalk where the aphids and ants were. I’m convinced that he was deliberately seeking out aphids as food rather than encountering them accidentally during a search for seeds.<\/p>\n<p>As Dan told me in an email last night ‘There are always interesting exceptions to the norm so it\u2019s never safe to make blanket statements.”<\/p>\n<p>I’m pretty happy to have documented an unusual behavior and that Dan helped me to realize it so I wanted to share some of the photos with my readers.<\/p>\n<p>Ron<\/p>\n<p> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>American Goldfinches aren’t supposed to be insect eaters but apparently this male didn’t get the memo.<\/p>\n<p> <a class=\"continue-reading-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.featheredphotography.com\/blog\/2020\/07\/26\/american-goldfinches-dont-eat-insects-or-do-they\/\"><span>Continue reading<\/span><i class=\"crycon-right-dir\"><\/i><\/a> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":87847,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3823,5,334,392],"tags":[1757,5261,4780,5262,4654,1644,211,3824,4700,612],"class_list":["post-87844","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-american-goldfinch-birds","category-bird-oddities","category-birds","category-feeding-bird-behaviors","tag-american-goldfinch-2","tag-aphids-with-wings","tag-dan-gleason","tag-do-american-goldfinches-eat-insects","tag-eating-aphids","tag-eating-insects","tag-male","tag-spinus-tristis","tag-thistle","tag-unusual-behavior"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/american-goldfinch-2960-ron-dudley.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1zzJh-mQQ","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87844","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=87844"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87844\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/87847"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=87844"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=87844"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=87844"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}