First ever Purple Finch

They were females but that’s okay. We can be absolutely sure they were Purple Finches that way instead of more of our very numerous and common House Finches!!

I was excited and pleasantly surprised to spot one through the pine tree sitting on our big sunflower seed feeder. I started looking for males but there are so many House Finches here I just couldn’t pick out any definite male Purple Finches but I did spot that we had at least two female Purple Finches, which is still pretty cool and exciting since we have never had them here at our feeders before that I have seen and they are generally less urban.

As a bonus I had a male Finch visit at the same time that I thought might be a Purple Finch since it looked pretty rasberry in color but the keys said it was just another House Finch and the people at Birding Michigan agreed that it was only a House Finch.

The female House Finches only seem to have stayed that one day and have since moved on, but I’m keeping my eyes open for more now that some have found us here in SW Lansing, Michigan at our urban back yard feeders!