Purple Finch male bottom right, Purple Finch female, bottom left
Purple Finch malePurple Finches are lovely birds, the male with his raspberry red wash. The more subtle female has a white eyebrow, a nice clue to tell her apart from the similar looking female House Finch. One trick to tell the male Purple Finch from the male House Finch is to look at their flanks. The male Purple Finch has very little streaking there, the male House Finch is noticeably more streaked. You can learn a lot about birds, just by watching your feeders.
Photos © Lillian Stokes, 2007
4 comments:
Thank you for posting these terrific photos! I'm still a relatively novice birder and have been frustrated by my inability to discern this bird from the House Finch, and until today hadn't found satisfactory photos to show me the difference. After seeing your photos I realize that I have yet to see a Purple Finch. Another goal to meet!
They are lovely birds. I get the occasionally at my feeders in the winter. They should be called Raspberry Finches. Your pictures are lovely!
Glad to be of help. Many people think House Finches are Purple finches. You need to look closely to distinguish them, and the amount or shade of red on the males is not always a help. Where we are in NH, Purple Finches are more common on our rural property, House Finches are rare and more likely to be seen in the towns.
Thanks for the nice pictures! We just saw our first male Purple Finch at our bird feeder, and he certainly is brilliant to look at. I agree with Liza - let's call them Raspberry Finches!
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