Purple or House Finches?

House finches visit the feeders every day. Once in a while there are one or two who are much brighter than the regulars. I have suspected these are purple finches. They don't usually stay long enough to be examined through the binoculars or allow me to get a picture of them, so I haven't been able to confirm it - until this morning. I saw them from the dining room window, grabbed the camera, went downstairs and slowly and quietly opened the door. I dared not step outside. Through the screen I took these photos.

I uploaded the pictures to the Great Backyard Bird Count Group on Facebook and asked the members to help me identify if they truly are purple finches. I was given that confirmation!

Addendum: After posting this, others in the group commented that these are indeed house finches and sited the brown cap and stripe on the side of the head. I looked through my bird books and pictures from professional sites on line, and found a large assortment of coloration on the purple finch. If the females would join the males, identification would be much easier, as the female purple finch has a distinct white stripe along the side of her head!

So as of now, I am NOT sure whether I have seen a purple finch or not!

Backyard Birding class at CT Audubon Center

I've signed up for this free one hour class at the CT Audubon Center on Burr St in Fairfield. One of the things it mentions is learning to tell the difference between a house and purple finch, and this is something I really want to know! I do believe a purple finch was at the bird feeder this morning.It was beautiful!

Introduction to Backyard Birding with Scott Kruitbosch

Bird Visitors

For a while (about one month I'd say) the activity at the bird feeders dropped drastically. Only house sparrows were constant visitors taking endless trips to feed their babies.  Mourning Doves were constant as well, but everyone else seemed to move on or switch to eating bugs and worms.

Lately the house (and maybe some purple) finches have been feeding here on a regular basis. Lots and lots of them! I'd say about 5 males and 20 females and/or juveniles! Yesterday there were 7 goldfinches - all males - at the bird bath! I believe I saw an oriole chase a crow last Sunday.

Today I saw a downy woodpecker at the back feeder, a nuthatch at the front feeder, red winged blackbirds on the ground below the large feeder in the enclosed garden, and a red bellied woodpecker on top of one of the cedar posts. Other visitors to the garden and feeders today were grackles, black birds, blue jays, cardinals, catbirds and robins.

And I saw a cotton tail bunny out back by the sour wood tree! It is so cute and tiny!! Saw it or another one last night too.