r/birdart • u/emma_art_aceo • 2h ago
The European goldfinch (Carduelis carduelis). Original OOAK ACEO 2.5x3.5 inches (6,3 x 8,3 cm). I drew it with Caran d'Ache Luminance pencils on 300 gsm paper. My own technique.
The goldfinch loves the seeds of thistles, burdock, and other ruderal weeds. Its scientific name (Carduelis carduelis) comes from the Latin word carduus, meaning thistle.
The European goldfinch (Carduelis carduelis), is a small passerine bird in the finch family that is native to the Palearctic zone in Europe, northern Africa, and western Asia. It has been introduced to other areas, including Australia, New Zealand, Uruguay and the United States.
Black market worth millions of euros and... millions of bird lives.
Did you know that... goldfinches are (theoretically) protected birds in Europe, but... in the Mediterranean basin, they are:
- caught, illegally captured in nets and on sticky sticks, and then sold at underground pet markets;
- in the Middle East, the goldfinch is an extremely popular cage bird;
- in these regions, wild songbirds are captured en masse or shot with shotguns for culinary purposes. They are used to prepare the local, illegal delicacy ambelopoulia (a dish made from small songbirds). Hundreds of thousands of birds are killed there annually (for example, an official report by BirdLife Cyprus published in the spring of 2026 shows that as many as 726,000 songbirds were illegally caught and killed in Cyprus the previous autumn).
Bird populations (and other species) are rapidly disappearing from Earth. Do we really need to eat these tiny creatures that make our world more beautiful?
