Introduction

One of the more common birds in New Jersey. Families of House Finches visit our front yard frequently and year around. While the females all look alike, the males vary in color from yellow to a deep purple.

First Encounters

I recall seeing a male House Finch high in a tree in our front yard the day we set off for Potsdam for Denise's graduation ceremony in May 2001, but the photos of that encounter are lost. Over on Wanamassa.us, I still have an album from the early days of photos I took of House Finches.

Subsequent Sightings

Sightings are so plentiful that here are just a few samples, starting with a red male and a female:

On the afternoon of April 15, 2014, I happened to be on the front steps with the camera at the ready when this bird dropped by. It stayed on the feeder for a short time and then was gone never to be seen again in our front yard. At the time, I thought of this as a yellow House Finch but I've since seen a photo of one in California that was really yelow. So now I think of this bird as a light-orange House Finch.

A couple of months later at Cattus Island, an orange House Finch visited their feeders by the visitor center when I happened to be there with my camera at the ready:

Another orange House Finch stopped by our front-yard feeder on July 4, 2015:

Here's an example of a very dark House Finch that came by on September 4, 2015. Until you've actually seen a Purple Finch, it is easy to think that a bird like this might not be a House Finch, but it is. Aside from differences in plumage, the purple simply doesn't extend far ehough down the body of the bird: