WINTER BACKYARD BIRDS (U.S. AND CANADA)

House Finch

SCIENTIFIC NAME: Haemorhous Mexicanus

House Finch

Males have bright red head, forehead, eyebrow, throat, chest, and rump, varying to orange or occasionally yellow. Its crown, rear head, and back are brown streaked with darker brown, brown wings and square tail. Belly and undertail coverts are white, streaked with broad brown stripes. Eyes are black, legs and feet are dark brown.

Females and juveniles are entirely brown, streaked dark brown, except chin, throat, and breast, uniformly streaked brown on white plumage. Females lack red color.

Juvenile males reach this color by first fall.

BILL: horn-colored short, conical seed-eating bill.

SIZE: small, measuring 4.9 - 5.9 inches, with a wingspan of 7.9 - 9.8 inches.

WEIGHT: weight varies from 16 - 27 grams.

COLOR: bright red, orange, yellow, brown, dark brown, white and black.

Feeds primarily on grains and seeds, buds and fruits, may also eat some flower parts and insects such as beetles larvae and plant lice.

They are very social, forages in groups, often in trees, and also on the ground. They are active during the day.

Songs: long, jumbled warbling composed of short notes, often ends with an upward or downward slur, and lasts about 3 seconds.

Males may sing throughout the year.

Females sometimes give a shorter, simpler version of the song.

Calls: sharp 'cheep' made often while perched and during flight.

NEST: The female builds a shallow cup-shaped nest made of grasses, hair, or other available fibers, placed in sagebrush, saltbrush, mountain mahogany, cactuses, tree cavities, buildings, on tree branches, or in bird boxes.

EGGS: 3 - 6 bluish or greenish-white eggs.

INCUBATION: 12 - 17 days, female only.

NESTLING PHASE: 12 - 19 days.

Dry desert, desert grassland, chaparral, oak savannah, streamsides, and open coniferous forests at elevations below 6,000 feet, human-created habitats such as buildings, lawns, small conifers, and urban centers. In rural areas, around barns and stables.