At 4-4.5 inches (10-11 cm) long and about 0.3 oz (9.5 g) in weight, it is the smallest North American Carduelis species. Males are easily recognized by their bright yellow underparts and big white patches in the tail (outer rectrices) and on the wings (the base of the primaries). Males in most of the range have solid black upperparts, but those of the subspecies hesperophilus, in the far western U.S. and northwestern Mexico, have olive-green napes and backs. Both green-backed and black-backed (Arkansas Goldfinch, nominate subspecies psaltria) males occur in Colorado and New Mexico, as do intergrades, and only black-backed males occur in southwestern Texas and most of Mexico. Males of the subspecies colombianus, east and south of the Isthmus of Tehuantepec, are richer yellow below.

Females' and immatures' upperparts are more or less grayish olive-green; their underparts are yellowish, buffier in immatures. They have only a narrow strip of white on the wings (with other white markings in some forms) and little or no white on the tail. They are best distinguished from other members of the genus by the combination of small size, upperparts without white or yellow, and dark gray bill. In all plumages this bird can easily be taken for a New World Warbler if the typical finch bill isn't seen well.

Like other goldfinches, it has an undulating flight in which it frequently gives a call: in this case, a harsh chig chig chig [Sibley]. Another distinctive call is a very high-pitched, drawn-out whistle, often rising from one level pitch to another (teeeyeee) or falling (teeeyooo). The song is a prolonged warble or twitter, more phrased that that of the American Goldfinch [Peterson], often incorporating imitations of other species.


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