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| photo by Alvan Buckley |
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| With Purple Finch (left) for comparison. photo by Alvan Buckley |
Chronicling my birding and other outdoor explorations around Ontario and beyond!
Monday 17 June 2013
Interesting finch from Rainy River
I briefly mentioned this bird on the Rainy River trip report but thought it would be worth its own post. We found this bird at the feeders at Harris Hill where it really stood out for its different shade of colour. Initially we tried to turn it into a Cassin's Finch just because it looked similar to a Purple Finch but different....but that didn't work...we've had a couple suggestions that this could be a House Finch x Purple Finch hybrid. We would love some more opinions on this bird...
Years ago I had a similar bird at my feeder here in Wallaceburg. Wasn't sure what to think of it, but it was 'in-between'!
ReplyDeleteHi Mike. Interesting bird. The Birds of North America (2012) mentions one documented case of a Purple x House Finch hybrid in the wild (Wootton 1996). We asked Michel Gosselin of the Canadian Museum to look at the photos. Michel said "I found at least one similar-coloured Purple Finch in the collection (Manitoulin, summer 1982), so I am reluctant to say it's a hybrid." Your bird shows two distinct Purple Finch characters: (1) a prominent pale area between eye and bill and (2) a forked tail. Colour variations are expected as in related finches. Ron and Jean
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Hi! I know this post is over 6 years old, but I stumbled upon it trying to find out how common house finch x purple finch hybrids might be. Turns out they are very rare, but since I'm here, I'll let you know this is definitely a purple finch, just an oddly colored one. There are many field marks that indicate this in addition to those pointed out by Ron & Jean. This bird is stockier than a house finch and has a heftier and more importantly straighter bill. House finches have a curved culmen. Although it's difficult to see, this bird also has slightly lighter color in two thick stripes above and below the eye, which on this bird appear red-orange in contrast to the brown color between them just behind the eye. On most male purple finches this field mark is just a lighter shade of raspberry red in contrast to a deeper raspberry red, but house finches lack this mark entirely. There is a very faint short streaking under the wing, which would be long, prominent and dark on a house finch. Also, there is a faint wash of the red color that extends down on the wings, which wouldn't be present on a house finch. Finally, this bird has a sometimes-visible pointed crown as seen in photos 5-9, which house finches also lack. All of these marks point to a pure Purple Finch. Perhaps you had already learned all this in the past 6+ years, but in case anyone else stumbles upon this like me, now they'll know, too. Happy birding!
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