Pleasant Surprise
I had another pleasant surprise last Tuesday. Among the birds that usually come to my backyard feeders were a bunch of House Finch, which have been very prolific this season. Well that wasn’t the reason for my surprise, really_ my surprise was seeing a male House Finch with different color plumage, more gold colored instead of red! About four years ago I had seen one finch orange and for a while I wasn’t sure about his identity.
Good thing that I had my camera ready and had just stopped raining, this gave me good lighting for the shots.
Have you ever seen one House Finch like that before?
Text and photographs © H.J. Ruiz – Avian 101
H.J. Ruiz - Avian101 
Beautiful finches and beautiful photos!
Thank you very much Lena! 🙂
Lovely birds!
Blessings ~ Wendy
Thank you very much! Blessings to you too Wendy!
No, indeed I haven’t. Thank you for giving me the chance to see it now.
You are most welcome Tom! 🙂
What a lovely color he is! Almost saffron. Great photos, HJ!
Thank you Lisa! I don’t mind surprises like that! 🙂
Interesting color! Wanted to learn more and I found this link on Color Variations in House Finches: http://www.birds.cornell.edu/pfw/AboutBirdsandFeeding/HoufinColorVariants.htm. I saw and photographed a yellow color variant back in 2008 at a Wildlife Refuge on the East End of Long Island, NY: http://www.flickr.com/photos/bcfoto/2314950524/ – before that, I never knew that male Finches were anything other than red.
That’s a nice shot! The yellow House finch are not common but not quite rare. Thank you for sharing Beth, it was very interesting to read your comment. 🙂
Neat sighting! I’ve never seen orangey coloring but I’ll keep my eye out more for them now. 🙂
Thank you Donna! Let me know if you see one like that! 🙂