365Caws is now in its 14th year of publication, and was originally intended to end after 365 days. It has sometimes been difficult for me to find new material, particularly during the winter months, but now as I enter my own twilight years, I cannot guarantee that I will be able to provide daily posts. It is my hope that along the way I may have inspired someone to a greater curiosity about the natural world. If so, I can rest, content in the knowledge that my work here has been done.
Wednesday, May 2, 2018
No Shingles, No House
Day 201: In areas where the two species occur together, there's an easy way to remind yourself of the difference between Purple Finch and House Finch: if it doesn't have shingles, it's not a house. The breast markings on House Finch are distinct flecks, as opposed to the soft, blurry, muted pattern worn by Purple Finch. Otherwise, the two birds look pretty much the same, or as Roger Tory Peterson puts it, "like a sparrow dipped in raspberry juice." The females of both species are even more difficult to distinguish, with both being your typical "little brown job" or "LBJ" as they are lovingly known in birding circles. A trained eye can pick out narrow wing bars on a female House Finch (not as well-defined on Purple) or on Purple, a straighter culmen (dorsal ridge of the bill) than on House, but you'd better have good field glasses and hope for a quiet subject if you wish to make either of these observations.
Labels:
birding,
Carpodacus purpureus,
Purple Finch
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