Purple Finch: Connecticut Audubon Bird Finder for November 13
Purple Finch
Haemorhous purpureus
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, cone-shaped bills with a sharp, pointy tip; well-adapted to crack seeds. If you are looking at them while they are backlit, their bills are smaller than cardinals but larger than sparrows. They have noticeably short, notched tails and a white stripe behind their eyes.
Purple Finches have a close relative that is far more common in this area, House Finches. You can differentiate these species by plumage, bill shape and tail length. Female Purple Finches are more dramatically streaky brown and white than their female House Finch counterparts. Male Purple Finches are less intensely red overall than House Finches, and the color is far less variable in Purple than in House Finches. Also, you can see even in a silhouette that the Purple Finch bill is pointier than the House Finch bill, which is more blunt. The Purple Finch tail length appears considerably shorter than House Finch tails.
Where to find it: Purple Finches spend the winter here in Connecticut and also migrate through to locales further south. Because they are seed eaters, you very well could see them at your bird feeder. They are forest species, so if you are afield, keep your eyes out for them along with chickadees, titmice and other forest songbirds.
How to find it: Purple Finches find their seeds in forests around New England and beyond; visit your local forest such as Connecticut Audubon Society’s Center at Fairfield or Earle Park at our Center at Glastonbury.
If you would like to attract wintering birds, you can put up any standard tube bird feeder and keep it full of high quality seed such as black oil sunflower seeds.
What if it isn’t there: Enjoy a walk in the woods in fall and winter. Listen to the leaves crack under your feet, or the snow under your boots. You will likely also see resident forest species such as Northern Cardinals, White-breasted Nuthatches, Tufted Titmice. If your feeder isn’t attracting Purple Finches, you will surely attract other lively and beautiful seed-eating songbirds including nuthatches, titmice, and cardinals.
Conservation status: Purple Finch populations are of low conservation concern because their numbers have remained stable over the last several decades according to the International Union of the Conservation of Nature (IUCN).
This week’s Connecticut Audubon Society Bird Finder was written by Michelle Eckman, Connecticut Audubon’s director of education, and edited by Tom Andersen.
Photos by Cephas, Carolinabirds.org.
