Finches

Finches are extremely fun to watch. This is the best, unplugged show in town, which may actually make it the best show in town.

Goldfinch is scoping out the situation down below to see if there's anything good to eat or drink.

The 'birdie dive' to get to drop quickly. Forget swooping about. This means business, and quick!

See how much smaller the American goldfinch is than the house finch?

 One of our sets of regular house finch couples. It's as if they see me and ask "what are you doing?"
The female is the brown, streaked on the left and the male is the pretty one on the right. I will share my confusion over the different types of "red finches" for the longest time. Why they don't just call them red is beyond me. The purple finch is a more brilliant and rich red, with hints of magenta or maroon, but he is definitely not purple, in my humble opinion! ;-)

The finch dance that I get to see almost every day. I wish my focus had been better. There is the goal for next time. :-)

 Coming in for a landing with the others. They are sociable creatures and love to stick together in groups. One of my bird books says they can move into a yard by the dozens or HUNDREDS. Imagine that! That's a lot of birdseed.

They don't just eat from  tube thistle feeders or sock feeders. These are eating black oil sunflower seed from a flat surface. When I was a newbie birder several years ago, I thought I must have a tube thistle feeder in order to attract finches, especially gold finches. I was so wrong! I finally gave up on those, just figuring we'd never have a whole bunch of finches. Again, I was wrong. They came later, and seemed to prefer our regular feeders at the cottage. Go figure.


Next time, I will tell you about one of our regular house finch couples. The female has a bit of a health problem.


Until Then!

Javamom