The Purple Finch

This morning I was surprised to see a pair of new finches at the birdfeeder. Well, spring is just around the corner and you would expect a few different birds to be passing through.

At first I thought they were male House Finches that had brightened themselves up in anticipation of the breeding season. Groups of 8 to 10 House Finches, which I have written about before, regularly hog all the perches at my birdfeeder.

But these were a brilliant raspberry red color, not the strawberry red of the male House Finches. And they weren’t quite as bold, hanging back in the bushes while the Chickadees and Nuthatches made their wild zooming grab-and-dash forays at the feeder dodging around the House Finches firmly perched on their favorite spots.

I looked through my bird book, which has terrible pictures. The bird book’s Purple Finches were definitely purple, not raspberry red. But otherwise they sounded like the right species. What finally settled it tonight was when I found some beautiful Purple Finch photos, looking exactly the same as the birds I saw this morning.

According to Cornell’s article, the Purple Finch (Carpodacus purpureu) has been displaced in many areas by House Finches. I’m not surprised. They’re such pigs at the birdfeeder buffet!