16 replies to this topic

[goofy166]

House Finch

[AlbertaBirder]

We get the house finch in Edmonton Alberta Canada but your map excludes our area. Can it be updated?

Mark

Great site btw, i use it lots for my less birdly friends and co-workers, keep up the good work.

[revvinjim]

Is it just my imagination, or are the nuances that make each male house finch's call unique discernible to the human ear? I seem to be able to pick up different flourishes, or changed notes in the calls of different male house finches.

[memmae]

I have a question about the finches. (thought I posted something yesterday, but it has not shown up yet, so if this doubles I am sorry!) The back of my home is all large windows and I have 4 feeders out off my back deck... In their flying around yesterday, one of the females hit the window. She was laying on the porch still breathing and the other finches (the red colored males) were all hopping on her and picking at her beak and squawking fiercely at her and each other. There were about 8 other birds doing this to her. I went out and (without touching her) scooped her up in a dish towel and sat her down in my garden until she gained her senses and flew away. My question is this: Why were they doing this to her? I am hoping they were not attacking her, but it was quite odd to see.

[cabirds]

Welcome to the forum!

If they'd wanted to hurt her - she'd have been toast for sure.

They could well have been giving her the Finch equivalent pep-talk of "walk it off".

Bird behavior is intensely interesting and highly complex. Having started life as a cryptographer, I find it the most fascinating avenue of birding (and studying animals in general) to decode their complex behavioral-based languages. Over the last 17 years, I've learned the language my dog speaks down to the finest points of body language, ear position, tail position, even eye movements. If you study birds long enough, you should be able to decode similar. It all comes down to realizing that their language will be iconic, less literal than ours, and you need many exemplars. Don't read too much into a single event, but certainly keep your eye open for similar events where you can start to watch for patterns - and thank you for sharing these with us!

[memmae]

Thank you for your response. I just moved to California from Colorado. I have no experience whatsoever with birds other than feeling a plethora of them in my yard at my last house. We live in a rather remote area and I spent the first few weeks watching the behavior of the hawks vs the ravens. That was interesting enough to get me started! I know finches are supposed to be considered pests, but I am enjoying their banter every morning. I may be on here with more questions about them later....

[cabirds]

Well welcome!

You'll be hard-pressed to find many here who'd call them "pests"!

Ask away, we're "always here"!

[meghann]

Oh yeah, lots of us here love house finches, they are a highly underrated bird. House SPARROWS, on the other hand are a nuisance.

Yay for finches!


House finch pair by midgetinvasion, on Flickr

[cabirds]

[luckywish]

 Bird4Print.jpg   294.21K   8 downloads here is one of my house finches that come over a lot

[luckywish]

here is my house finch that sit on a tree out here

[luckywish]

i will have to post it again when i can resize it

[luckywish]

 IMG_2578 (213 x 334).jpg   22.12K   9 downloads

[RyanWarnerPa]

I have to admit that the house finch is probably my favorite finch to sit and watch. They are very vocal and always social. We did have a nest in that was easily accessed, but I assume a predator wiped the nest out. The nest itself was still in-tact with little to no visible damage, but it was empty, here's the last photo I was able to get of the nest.

[spongee62]

Since the first time I started feeding hummingbirds, I have read and since seen orioles and woodpeckers drink the nectar. Today I noticed something different hanging from and drinking from one of my feeders, it was two house finches. I looked up on this site and another regarding what they eat and neither indicated drinking nectar. Has anybody ever seen this behavior? Of course by the time I got my camera ready, they took off. I will try to get a pic sometime.

[ILWIorAZ]

anyone know what these two were doing, male and female, in Tucson today.

[BrendaDup]

Here are some of my favorite House Finch photos.  I really enjoyed taking pictures of them, I watch a male carry food to a female all day  and I had one show up with a weird head like something removed his feathers on part of his head.Brenda