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Wednesday, March 16, 2011

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..

The first bay

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.

Robin

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

log bay

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

Two pairs of Geese

There were 2 pairs of Canada Geese

Killdeer

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.

low rainbow

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)

Closer look

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..

cropped

orange….like this male or….

Yellow varient

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…

and another

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 close up

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

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…

Orange factored one with normal

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

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