WINTER BACKYARD BIRDS (U.S. AND CANADA)

Purple Finch

SCIENTIFIC NAME: Haemorhous Purpureus

Purple Finch

Adults have short forked brown tail and brown wings.

Males are raspberry red on the head, breast, back and rump and their back is streaked.

Females have light brown upperparts and white underparts with dark brown streaks throughout, and they have a white line on their face and above the eye.

BILL: conical, seed-eating bill.

SIZE: measures about 5.9 inches in length.

WEIGHT: weighs about 34 grams.

COLOR: brown, raspberry red, white and black.

Seeds, berries, and insects, and they are fond of sunflower seeds, millet, and thistle.

Moist, cool evergreen forests, mixed forests, along wooded streams, and in tree-lined suburbs.

More widespread, using forests, shrubby areas, weedy fields, hedgerows, and backyards (in winter).

The U.S. Pacific coast, Northern Canada to the Southern United States.

Songs: Males have 3 kinds of songs, slurred warbling, warbling song and territory song. Females sing their own songs, a long warbling from the nest.

Calls: Short, low "tek."

NEST: The female mostly builds the nest from twigs, sticks, and roots, then line the cup with fine grasses and animal hair.

EGGS: 2 - 7 pale greenish-blue eggs, marked with brown and black.

INCUBATION: 12 - 13 days.

NESTLING PHASE: 13 - 16 days.

The aggressive ones show their agitation by leaning toward their opponent, neck stretched out and bill pointed at the other bird, sometimes results in actual pecking attacks.

Females usually win out over males during disputes at food sources and in flocks.