COBirders-- Yesterday afternoon a pair (M + F) of Lesser Goldfinches appeared briefly in my back yard. They were of the black-backed form which makes them most likely from Texas and much rarer here than other wanderers from that state that allegedly drive Suburbans. [Clarification for our novice birders: Most Lesser Goldfinches in Colorado—and almost all west of our state—have a greenish back. See Sibley, The Sibley Guide to Birds, 2nd ed. p. 579. During the last several decades the ratio of green-backs to black-backs that I have seen here has been roughly 20 – 1.]
Leon Bright. Pueblo
Leon,
I live in Colorado Springs and have Lesser Goldfinch nearly all year and they are consistently black-backed. Variety in the bird world is the spice of life

Gloria Nikolai
El Paso County
COBirders-- Yesterday afternoon a pair (M + F) of Lesser Goldfinches appeared briefly in my back yard. They were of the black-backed form which makes them most likely from Texas and much rarer here than other wanderers from that state that allegedly drive Suburbans. [Clarification for our novice birders: Most Lesser Goldfinches in Colorado—and almost all west of our state—have a greenish back. See Sibley, The Sibley Guide to Birds, 2nd ed. p. 579. During the last several decades the ratio of green-backs to black-backs that I have seen here has been roughly 20 – 1.]
Leon Bright. Pueblo