House Finch!

Well it is nice to know that I wasn’t totally ‘out to lunch’ with my predictions for the month of March ~ saw the first House Finches today over at the log bay…didn’t manage a picture but this is good opportunity to discuss House and Purple Finches….

First though we’ll quickly go over today..

Not a bad day, we’ve seen a little bit of sun and few showers….there was bird song coming from all directions….Robin’s were everywhere…including here.

this one enjoying poking about in the muck for edible tidbits!

at first glance it would appear there was nothing here…but looking closer…

There were 2 pairs of Canada Geese…

While checking that the Robins I were seeing were indeed robins…I also spotted a pair of Killdeer.  There is only one in this picture…towards the right….they were being completely silent, if they hadn’t moved I would never have known they were there.

heading back there was another Rainbow…but this one was very low and I couldn’t really capture it, due to the bushes…

Now…Finches…there are actually 3 types of ‘red’ Finches; House, Purple and Cassin’s.  In the 14 years I’ve been keeping watch here, Cassin’s have only visited our area once…so I won’t confuse the issue with them.

Since we saw ‘House Finch’ today, we’ll start with them.  House Finch, as the name suggests, like urban settings.  Originally native to Mexico they extended their range northward as urbanization took place, arriving in B.C. in the late 1930’s (Information taken from Birds of Southwestern British Columbia)

Female House Finch (the top bird) are a soft tan color…they do have markings but they are ‘soft’ in appearance.  Males are, usually, what I describe as a ‘strawberry’ red in colour however they can also be..

orange….like this male or….

even yellow, like this male seen over at the park on February 23, 2009.  There are lots of theories as to what causes this different coloration, including diet…

This male was a mixture of both orange and yellow!

Purple Finches, are our native finches and although they will come to bird feeders, especially while on migration, they much prefer a setting of mixed forest (which we, in this area, are lucky to still have)

Female Purple Finch (pictured above) are much darker than a female House Finch with much more definite markings especially over and under the eye…they also have an overall olive yellow cast to their color.

Male Purple Finch (pictured above) are a Raspberry red in color…in fact the whole bird, even the brownish wings and tail, look like they’ve been dipped in raspberry juice.  It is very rare to find a male purple finch with any different coloring…

This orange male, pictured with a normal male and two females, is the only one I have ever seen.