Finches

Having a few bird feeders with a variety of food items provides good opportunities to see the local birds such as the chickadees and nuthatches during the winter. But there is always a bit of eager anticipation to see what unexpected birds show up at the feeders. Thanks to the Finch Research Network, we have an estimate of what might show up.

We had a reddish sparrow sized bird at the feeder the other day. Once again I had to look closely to determine if it was a purple finch or a house finch.…