Just a house finch... but isn't he cute?

Caught this guy while having fun the the back yard last night. The bigger birds (YB Sapsucker and Flicker) were keeping the little guys away from the feeder (as well as the cats and the squirrels) so he was just sitting there patiently waiting his turn.

Hehe :D I think that's a purple finch. Nice shot!

I got a little closer to the feeder and got this one full frame. Is it a house finch or a purple finch CK or Paul??

The first one really looks like a purple finch due to the amount of red on the breast. Second one is hard to tell. The easiest way for me to tell them apart is by looking at the females that are usually with the males. The female purple finch has a white eye-brow which the house finch does not have.

I would wait for Paulnj to give give you a definite answer before taking my word.

House finches and that first image is quite a brightly color breeding plumage male. purple finches have much more reddish color throughout the body and you will know for sure when you see one.

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Originally Posted by paulnj

House finches

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See, I told ya you should wait :D

Thanks guys. Much appreciated. I don't think we have any purple finches around here. The house finches however are all brightly plumed like these guys and singing like there's no tomorrow. Definitely breeding season.

I am sure you have them in your area because the breed in every canadian province. House finches are year round in all 50 states and go into canada along the borders so to speak.

kewl. I will keep an eye out then since theres about a billion finches around here right now lol

Wondering why you seem to get to take pics of pretty little birds, and yet, here I am north of you and all I see are stupid crows and sterlings.

lol barb. Theres starlings everwhere here too. and grackles and crows and the other "uglies" that we see commonly... but I am willing to bet in a few more weeks that these little guys will be making their trek north as we get some warmer weather. These guys showed up when we had that warm spell a few weeks back and have been hanging around the feeder now since the weather turned cold again.

If you want to attract the little guys and not the big guys however put out a small feeder with nothing but thistle seed or niger seed in it and th elittle guys will come in flocks and droves. The big guys prefer peanuts and sunflower seeds to the small seeds and tend to avoid the feeders with only the finch / sparrow types of seeds.

We have tried bird feeders in the past, and we did get some small birds, but those damn ugly birds hung around and scared off the little guys. I am going to try a Baltimore Oriole feeder this summer, they came around last year. Humming bird feeder didn't work, maybe they sensed my cat.