This is a tale of two finches — actually two different finch species — and the American redbud.
There’s a certain time of year when the native redbud is blooming, with its tiny pink flowers in clusters on bare branches with leaves yet to unfurl.
It’s usually about mid to late April, and that’s the same time the purple finch stops in the yard to partake of sunflower oilers while on its way to its northerly breeding grounds.
Over the years though, it’s been difficult to see a purple finch at the feeders because the introduced house finch chases it away.
This spring, the bird tables were turned as seven female and at least four male purple finches took over the feeders. One female was particularly feisty. When three purple finches landed on the same perch, she chased them away. The house finches seemed to be more reticent about visiting the feeders when the purple finches were there.
It’s not easy to tell the house and purple finch apart, but there are several clues. House finch males can be highly variable in color with most a light pinkish red, but varying to a darker rose red, orange red or even yellow with brown streaking on the sides. The females are brown and lightly streaked on their bodies with a plain brownish face.
The male purple finch is more of a dark purplish red color. An ornithologist once wrote that the purple finch looks as if it’s been dipped in raspberry juice. The brown feathering of the outer edge of the male’s wing and back feathers are also finely lined with that hue, and its rump also sports the color, giving the males a much more overall red appearance. In addition, the male purple finch has a distinct, thick black eye line below the raspberry-hued head.
Female purples are brown with streaks, but they also have a distinct facial pattern, with a distinct dark brown mask through the eye, bordered above and below the brown mask with wide, bright whitish streaks lacking on the female house finch.
The purple finch also has solid white undertail coverts, its rear-end feathers, while the house finch has dark streaking on its undertail coverts.
The house finch is not native to the eastern United States. This species lived in Mexico and the southwestern United States, but in the 1940s more than 10,000 were trapped and illegally sold in New York as caged birds. The house finches reproduced and began spreading back westward until they were common throughout the eastern U.S., arriving here in Illinois in 1971, where they can be found year-round, even on snowy winter days.
Unfortunately, the house finch population grew so much in North America that gatherings at feeders led to it sometimes catching an eye disease called conjunctivitis. Keeping feeders clean is one way to thwart the disease.
As the house finch populations rose and dominated feeders, the purple finch became scarcer in yards and likely stayed in forested areas where it eats seeds and buds from ash, elm, sycamore, box elder and other trees.
The purple finch is a bird of the north woods, breeding mostly across southern Canada and northern United States. They move around seeking food in winter, and sometimes visit feeders as well as woodlands farther south of their breeding range.
When it’s time to start nesting, they head back north. Over the years, it seems their numbers diminished, but this year we’ve had the pleasure of watching at least 13 of them come and go, feed and perch for hours at a time.
The bird feeder the purple finches like is situated near the redbud, and sometimes these birds perch on the tree where their deep colors contrast with the pastel colors of the tree’s blooms.
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On a cool, sunny spring day, one of the region’s best birders, David Johnson, came by to see the purple finches at our feeders. The males glistened in the sun as we drank our coffee. A female purple finch perched on the redbud with a blossom in her beak. Both purple and house finches regularly eat the nutritious blossoms and buds of a variety of.
To add to the ambience, a white-throated sparrow gave its melancholy lilting song from the backyard. This sparrow is another species that is heading north to the boreal forest to breed. Even a few dark-eyed juncos, often called snowbirds, persist at spilled bird seed on our lawn, though most have already flown back to the north woods.
I know there are more migratory birds to come in May, but I feel a sort of sadness knowing how fleeting spring’s glorious moments are. The redbud soon will drop its blossoms and be covered in green leaves.
The white-throated sparrow will no longer be singing in my yard, and the purple finch will no longer sit in the gleaming sun. It’s a melancholy feeling reserved for this time of year when nature lovers get their own special kind of spring fever.
Sheryl DeVore has worked as a full-time and freelance reporter, editor and photographer for the baiduhai and its subsidiaries. She’s the author of several books on nature and the environment. Send story ideas and thoughts to [email protected].