How do you tell the difference between a Purple Finch and a house finch?

A female house finch has a fairly plain brown face, while a female purple finch has a contrasting white eyebrow and whisker mark. House finches also have a smaller beak, a slimmer body, shorter wingtips, and a longer tail than the purple finch.

Is there a Purple Finch?

Not really purple, more of an old-rose color is the male Purple Finch. This species is common in the North and East, and along the Pacific seaboard, but it is very rare in much of the Rocky Mountains region. Purple Finches feed up in trees and on the ground in open woods.

What does a purple house finch look like?

Male Purple Finches are delicate pink-red on the head and breast, mixing with brown on the back and cloudy white on the belly. Female Purple Finches have no red. They are coarsely streaked below, with strong facial markings including a whitish eyestripe and a dark line down the side of the throat.

Why is a Purple Finch called a Purple Finch?

The species name, purpureus, comes from Latin and means “crimson” or other reddish color. Our word “purple,” meaning a color obtained from mixing red and blue, derives from the Latin, purpureus. The Purple Finch is really a crimson colored finch.

Why is a Purple Finch not purple?

The Purple Finch looks as if it someone poured purple dye on its head and the color moved over the original brown and cream and flowed down the back and down the chest. The House Finch has color along its eyebrow, but the entire head does not have color.

Are Purple Finches invasive?

(They were introduced in Hawai’i around 1859.) Like other invasive birds, House Finch numbers have been on the downturn. They appear to have little impact on most other birds, although they may outcompete Purple Finches where the species overlap.

Where do Purple Finches sleep at night?

Finches: On extremely cold, snowy nights, American Goldfinches have been known to burrow into the snow to create a sleeping cavity. More often, they spend winter nights roosting with other goldfinches in coniferous trees.

How do you tell if a finch is a boy or girl?

Male finches have brighter colored markings than females. Males can have brightly colored cheek patches and breast bars, and also may have spots on their flanks.

Does a House Finch have a forked tail?

Finches tend to have shorter tails than sparrows. Most finch tails are strongly forked; many sparrows have round tails, but can be short or long. When flying, finches tend to fly to fly strong and high with undulating flight. The House Finch tends more toward the sparrow shape and behavior, as we’ll see below.

How do I identify a finch bird?

Adult males are rosy red around the face and upper breast, with streaky brown back, belly and tail. In flight, the red rump is conspicuous. Adult females aren’t red; they are plain grayish-brown with thick, blurry streaks and an indistinctly marked face.

Are purple finches bigger than house finches?

Overall, purple finches are slightly larger than house finches, but if the birds are seen at different distances, Plumage Color: The males of both these finches are red and brown, but there are many different shades of red.

How do you tell a house finch from a purple finch?

They are about the same size and shape, but the difference is in the coloring. The males can be distinguished by the shades of color. The male House Finch is an reddish-orange, while the male Purple Finch is a reddish-purple. The House Finch has what looks like streaking on the breast and the sides.

What are the Predators of the purple finch?

Purple finches are mostly exposed to predators during the breeding season, when eggs and young are abundant and helpless prey for predators. Common nest predators include blue jays, scrub jays, Clark’s nutcrackers, common grackles, and red squirrels .

What does a purple finch look like?

What it looks like: Purple Finches are chunky, streaky brown and whitish birds. Males have pinkish-red plumage that starts most intensely at the crown and gets more faded down towards the lower and back parts of the body; females are all streaky brown and white. Both sexes have thick,…

What sound does a purple finch make?

Sounds: Both house finches and purple finches have similar songs, but their call notes are markedly different and can be useful for identification. The house finch has a louder, longer “chirp” call with a rising pitch, while the purple finch’s call is a soft “pik” sound.