House Finches

  The weather is warming up, and more birds are arriving at the feeder. This week a couple house finches got my attention, so I snapped a few shots of them and decided to make them the species for this week. These birds can be found almost everywhere in the US year round. Male house finches are handsome with a scarlet red wash on their heads and throats. Females are brownish gray with blurry streaks all over. Many finches will overlook a regular tube feeder because the seeds and berries inside are too big, but house finches will sift through the seeds as well as eat the thistle from the finch feeders. These birds are not ground feeders, so unless you have a finch feeder you most likely won't encounter one.  They're hard to spot on trails because finches are very small birds that blend in with the trees that they're perched in. If you don't have a feeder at home (yet!), visit a local nature center. They usually keep their feeders full and you can observe the birds up close and personal.
A fun fact about house finches is that in 1940 a group of illegally sold caged house finches were released near New York City, and now all of the house finches east of the great plains are descendants of these released birds! Birds rule!

A female (left) and male (right) house finch eating thistle seeds from a tube feeder

Two male house finches that were searching for the smaller seeds inside the tube feeder

A male house finch perched on a wisteria vine.