Young Purple Finch

Day 263: Friends joke that my birds have me trained well. If I am working on the computer, they perch on the shepherd's-hook directly outside the window and stare at me until they get their point across: the feeder is empty, and we're hungry. If I'm sitting with my back to the window, they'll fly carefully forward so that they can flutter their wings against the glass until they've drawn my attention. And because I am so well-trained, I lay down whatever project is in my hands to go and deliver another round of black-oil sunflower seed. The Grosbeaks (especially the Black-Headed Grosbeaks) are the most likely to make demands in this way, although other species do it as well, including the Purple Finches (Carpodacus purpureus, above) are adept at it as well. I've even had a Northern Flicker communicate in this way when there was no more suet in the wire basket! The Chickadees land on the seed can (or my head) as soon as I step out the door. The Nuthatch isn't quite that brave, but often has to be told to move over so I can refill the tray. But as any good trainer knows, there must be some reward, and this is mine: little feathered friends posing for portraits, cute as they can be.

Purple Finch Male

Day 199: Backyard birding has taken on a whole new relevance since COVID-19 appeared on our maps, and although I'm not likely to see any new species, it's a delight when one of the "summer folk" arrives. I presently have a disproportionate number of female Purple Finches giving the few brightly coloured males a wide selection of potential mates. The female is an LBJ, "Little Brown Job" in birder parlance, and sometimes difficult to identify at first glance because she resembles a sparrow. Look for a light "eyebrow," a heavy, seed-cracking beak and a dark lateral (side) stripe on the throat which begins at the lower part of the bill. The male is much easier to pin down. He looks as if he'd bathed in raspberry juice. Where the species overlap, males can be confused with those of House Finch, but remember: Houses have shingles, i.e., their breasts are marked with dark flecks. The breast of the male Purple Finch is clear.

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.

Fine Feathered Finch Friends

Day 197: Roger Tory Peterson describes Purple Finch (Carpodacus purpureus) as "a sparrow dipped in raspberry juice." While that aptly describes the appearance of the male, the female is a rather blandly coloured bird whose streaky breast and flanks make her hard to distinguish from House Finch where the two occur together (female Purple has an eye stripe, female House has narrow white wing bars; male House has "shingles," i.e., a streaky breast similar to that of the female, a feature the male Purple lacks).

Sexual dichromatism (a difference in colour) is common in birds. Less common is true sexual dimorphism in which there are other differences in characteristics and size. It has been theorized that the female's lack of vivid colouration provides her with greater security from predators, but why would the males be brightly coloured? It is known that birds can see a much wider range of hues than are recognizable by humans, and a Scientific American article suggests that the female judges the male's health and vitality by the strength of his colour, holding up the Purple Finch as the paradigm. If that's true, my yard should be over-run by little Purple Finches in a few weeks!

No Shingles Here

Day 88: Houses have shingles, therefore this bird is purple.

Okay, I imagine some of you are having a hard time with that statement, but it is perfectly reasonable when you have all the data. This is a Purple Finch (Carpodacus purpureus). It has a close cousin in House Finch (Carpodacus mexicanus) and can be difficult to distinguish from it where the two species overlap in range. The key is in observing the bird's flanks and breast. House Finch has much sharper markings; the flanks in particular are patterned with distinct dark streaks, i.e., the "shingles" on the House. If you remember that one key phrase "Houses have shingles," you should have no trouble telling them apart in the field, even if the mnemonic confuses your non-birding friends.