Backyard 4/6--Purple Finch

Purple Finch

Here's one bird I thought I going to have wait until October or November to get another chance to see. As walking in the rain is not my favorite outdoor pursuit, I've been watching the feeders for the last day of Feederwatch since the morning. Peripherally, I saw a red bird on the thistle feeder, which immediately got my attention, because, oddly, the House Finches in our yard don't usually come to the thistle feeder, preferring the more expensive safflower seed; only the goldfinches and in the winter, the occasional junco, eat the thistle. So when I saw the raspberry colored finch right outside the window, I grabbed the camera and out of 40 shots, got a few decent ones of my FOY Purple Finch. Here is a good rule from separating Purple Finch from the much more common House Finch: If you have to think about it, it isn't.

For comparison, here are a couple of House Finches on the safflower feeder:

Smaller, less colorful, with stripes on the flanks.

The Purple Finch ate at the feeder for a few minutes, flew off, reappeared, and hasn't been seen again in a couple of hours, which is too bad, because I would have liked Shari to see it.