Bird
House Finch
Haemorhous mexicanus
Finches, Euphonias, and Allies (Fringillidae)
Year-round resident. Expected at the creek in every month.
- Field marks
- A streaky brown finch with a stubby, curved bill; the male's head, breast and rump are washed red to orange, the exact shade depending on what he ate while moulting.
- Male & female
- Females are plain streaky brown with no colour at all, and choose the reddest male, which is how the red got there.
- Voice
- A long, cheerful, jumbled warble ending in a buzzy 'wheer'.
- Diet
- Seeds, buds and fruit; a feeder regular.
- Habitat
- Towns, farms, gardens; seldom deep in the forest.
- Nesting
- In hanging baskets, ledges, conifers, wreaths; 3–5 eggs, several broods.
- Size
- 5–5½ in long, about ¾ oz: five quarters' worth of bird.
Native to the Southwest. The entire eastern population descends from caged birds released on Long Island in 1940 by a pet dealer avoiding a fine, which is not how conservation is supposed to work but is how it sometimes does.