Something Downeast

Male House Finch Haemorhous mexicanus

This is not a great picture, but it serves to make identification easier. The tricky thing about House Finches is that they look a lot like Purple Finches. Here’s a guide to help distinguish House Finches from Purple Finches and Cassin’s Finch.

As a kid in New Hampshire in the 1970s and early 1980s I regularly saw Purple Finches. House Finches had not yet become commonplace. Now, in Maine, I rarely see Purple Finches and see House Finches pretty much all winter long (though having said that, I’m not always sure that I’m looking at a House Finch and not a Purple Finch, particularly with the females). House Finches are in fact a fairly recent arrival to this part of the U.S.

The House Finch was originally a bird of the western United States and Mexico. In 1940 a small number of finches were turned loose on Long Island, New York, after failed attempts to sell them as cage birds (“Hollywood finches”). They quickly started breeding and spread across almost all of the eastern United States and southern Canada within the next 50 years.

The House Finches arrived in force a couple of weeks ago, along with a fresh infusion of American Gold Finches. I’ve seen more than ten at a time fairly often; once, I counted fifteen individual House Finches; oddly they seem to prefer the black oil sunflower, and the Gold Finches love the two finch socks.

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I‘ve taken the suet cage with nest-building fibers down since I took this picture, but it’s not too late for one last hatching of American Goldfinches. They breed very late. I‘m seeing young ones now, old enough to have left the nest, but not quite sure where to land on the feeder in order to successfully obtain seeds. This adult male Goldfinches has it completely figured out.

American Goldfinch (Spinus tristis), male

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It’s been raining freezing rain most of the day; not a lot of birds. I’ve seen Juncos, a couple of Chickadees, a Titmouse, a very cold looking puffed-up male House finch, and this female Northern Cardinal who let me take some slightly out-of-focus pictures.

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I’ll probably add more pictures throughout the day. It’s still snowing; the flakes are clumping together now. I heard geese off in the distance when I went out to take pictures today, and many, many Nuthatches in the trees. 

It was still snowing when I took this picture. 

This was taken at about 4 pm; the snow was wet, and thickly coating branches.

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It’s going to turn to rain, probably, in a couple of hours, but we have a light snow falling. It’s the kind of snow they put on greeting cards; not too thick, not windy, just white snow falling steadily. 

Naturally, when the Cardinal landed on the Rhododendron, I had to take a picture (through the window, on my iPhone). If it had a little more snow on the Rhoddodendron, and I had taken a slightly better picture, I’d have a holiday card. 

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