A Gardeners Forum Forums General Discussion Landscape trials and triumphs Butterfly and Bird Gardens Look at This RedHead bird

Look this bird has red on it
and in this pic they look like the same bird but the one has red on it lol

are they the same kind they look it to me

I would like to know what this one is. I have a couple around here.

Betty, good job at noticing they look the same. THEY ARE THE SAME!!! Those are House Finches. The one with the red is the male; the plain one is the female. They are VERY common visitors to bird feeders and like to eat Black Oil Sunflower seed (BOSS). Here is a picture I took of the sexes together using my daughter's expensive, high-tech camera. These were taken on my platform feeder.

HOUSE FINCHES (Male-left, Female-right)

Here is the male House Finch by himself! (Batching it)!

HOUSE FINCH (Male)

What I always find interesting about these birds, is that they are called PURPLE house finches - but they are bright red! We have lots of them here too.

And "house" finch because why? Do they build around houses?

There is a Purple Finch that is ALMOST identical to the House Finch, but is NOT the same species and the two do NOT interbreed.

I am not sure WHY they are called House Finches, but is probably like you say, Jonni. They love to hang around houses.

Just this morning I watched a female House Finch at my feeders acting like a baby bird fluttering her wings and begging for food from a male House Finch who promptly began to feed her just like a parent bird. Northern Cardinals feed each other as part of the mating ritual and APPARENTLY House Finches do too.

House finches are native to Western NA and are so named because at one time they were illegally caught and sold to easterners as cage birds

Stunning Photos - amazing clarity - Thornius

Thanks, herbalyn! I borrowed my daughter's Canon 6.1 Megapixel 12X Optical zoom camera to take those. She lives in Texas but is coming back tomorrow, and if she brings the camera again, she won't get it back until she leaves, heh, heh, heh!.