This week’s Bird of the Week, compliments of the Weminuche Audubon Society and Audubon Rockies, is the house finch.
As its name suggests, this is a bird that you don’t need to travel far from home to find. Originally living in the hot deserts and dry, open areas of the southwest, it has adapted to life in human-created habitats and is now found in towns and rural areas as well as its more natural open woodland, streamside and brushy landscapes.
In the early 1900s, caged birds were shipped to pet shops in the east, where they were sold for the colorful appearance and cheerful song of the male. When protections afforded by the Migratory Bird Treaty Act threatened these shops with fines in 1940, some of the birds were released on Long Island. From this small beginning, within 50 years populations had spread across the eastern United States and southern Canada, where they are now common.
Outside of breeding season, these social birds are rarely seen alone and can form very large flocks. Using stout, conical bills, they feed on the ground, in the brush or on trees for a wide variety of weed seeds, buds and fruits. Like the goldfinches, they rarely eat insects and even feed nestlings crushed plant materials. They will readily visit feeders to consume black-oil sunflower and nyjer thistle seeds.
The house finch is a small finch with a brown-streaked back, wings and belly. Males are rosy red around the face, breast and rump, and wear a brown cap on their rounded heads. These color patterns are also seen in the male Cassin’s finch, whose head feathers form a bright red peaked crown and who has less streaking on his flanks.
The intensity of red is a product of the carotenoids in the food the male house finch consumes when feathers are forming during spring molt, and some males are orange or yellowish instead. Males may sing at any time of year and females in spring. Brown-streaked females prefer the reddish males as partners.
A contagious bacterial infection known as mycoplasmal conjunctivitis has caused steep declines in some house finch populations. It causes respiratory problems and often displays as birds with red, runny, crusty eyes which can become swollen shut. If you see finches with these symptoms at your feeder, it is recommended that you take the feeder down for several days to disperse the sick birds before others are affected. Disinfect your feeders before putting them back out.
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