BIRD OF THE MONTH: HOUSE FINCH

House Finches are small-bodied finches with fairly large beaks. The wings are short which makes the tail look long in comparison. Many finches have distinctly notched tails but the House Finch has a relatively shallow notch in its tail.
Adult males are rosy red around the face and upper breast with a streaky brown back, belly and tail. Adult females are plain grayish-brown with thick, blurry streaks. Males can look very different from one to another. This is largely due to differences in their diet. The red of a male House Finch comes from pigments contained in its food during molt. The more pigment in the food, the redder the male. This is why people sometimes see orange or yellowish male House Finches. Females prefer to mate with the reddest male they can find perhaps raising the chances they get a capable mate who can do his part in feeding the nestlings.
The House Finch was originally a bird of the western United States and Mexico. In 1940 a small number of finches were turned loose on Long island, New York. They quickly started breeding and spread across almost all of the eastern United States and southern Canada.
House Finches were introduced to Oahu from San Francisco sometime before 1870. They became abundant on all the major Hawaiian Islands by 1901.
The total number of House Finches across North America is staggering. Scientists estimate between 267 million and 1.4 billion individuals.
House Finches eat plant materials exclusively including seeds, buds and fruits. They also feed only plant materials to their young which is a fairly rare occurence in the bird world.
At feeders, House Finches will eat black oil sunflower, safflower and millet. When they are not at feeders, they feed on the ground, on weed stalks or in trees.
A House Finch's nest is a cup made of fine stems, leaves, rootlets, thin twigs, string, wool and feathers with similar but finer materials for the lining. The nest is about 3 - 7 inches wide and up to 2 inches deep.
During courtship, males sometimes feed females in a display that begins with the female gently pecking at his bill and fluttering her wings. The male simulates regurgitating food to the female several times before actually feeding her.
The oldest known House Finch was 11 years, 7 months old.