A goldfinch sighting

After attending to the last of my organisational commitments for the day at 16:41, I left my building for a walk to relax and unwind. Barely having walked around the corner, a motion caught my eye. I turned to see a colourful bird, possibly juvenile, confusedly rotating around and around. After a gravity-defeating hop the winged creature returned to a fine performance of disorientation. Having seemed to have gained bearings, the feathered animal alit and assaulted my building only to be violently repelled. There were stars aplenty.

Two humanoids approaching, I retreated so as not to appear aggressive. The young-looking avian fearlessly approached me, hopping over some spectacle frames and into the ivy flowing off the embankment. Two local sparrows flew over in an apparent mission of investigation after which the subject of our observation courageously took to the air and flew back into the wall of the building, bouncing off, and then through the grating.

This self-entrapment by said bird provided me with an opportunity to fetch my camera for subsequent identification at 16:52. Upon my return, however, the possible finch was nowhere to be seen. A quick trip to the University of Auckland library provided confirmation that the finch might be a goldfinch.

I plan to query a professional ornithologist on the morrow, as the pictorial depictions of goldfinches present a feathered red mask, whereas our subject a wattled mask did wear.

I consulted with some Maori, who informed me that goldfinches started appearing with the arrival of those people both Christian and British in the first half of the nineteenth century.

[Addendum: 10:19 Wednesday]

Enquiries extensive, inquisitions of biological experts, suggest that claim of wattled mask erroneous was and goldfinch indeed, as most coloured of our fauna, the bird most likely was.