Why There’s a 12-Foot Tall Goldfinch Statue in Minnesota

A massive bird moved into Minnesota this month! No, it's not real, it's a 12-foot tall statue of a goldfinch. Why would this statue be in Minnesota? Of course there are lots of goldfinches around Minnesota but there's a town in the Twin Cities that actually is the home of this huge statue.

Back in 2019, the city of Bloomington started working with a sculptor in New York to make a statue come to life for the city, according to Bring Me the News. The artist's name is Donald Lipski and he picked 10 different songbirds that could make good statues for Bloomington. Then the public made the final choice and overwhelmingly chose the goldfinch.

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Since 2019 Donald has been working on this statue and it was finally completed this year! The 12-foot tall bright yellow goldfinch looks amazing. It's made out of fiberglass, Corten steel, and, of course, paint to give it the bright color it has.

The goldfinch statue made the trip from New York to Minnesota on a trailer. I would have been so terrified that I'd tip it over but it arrived safely and was put up on December 15th. It's located in Bloomington's South Loop neighborhood "on the corner of Old Shakopee Road and Killebrew Drive, just across from the Mall of America."

The most difficult part of the project for Donald? He told Bring Me the News that the sign that the bird stands on was the hardest! He said that he had to make sure the sign didn't look like a highway sign because that would potentially confuse drivers.