Super wonderful photos!

Yes, very nice! Thanks for sharing.

cool

Those are interesting photos. I'm not quick enough to capture the ones around here. I've never seen that finch, are they always red like that or is it a seasonal coloration?

Only the males have the red feathers and they have them year round, the female's feathers are brown. I've only seen house finches at my feeder a few times before and it's always been around this time of year.

House finches...to love them or to hate them? Here's the story. They are native to Mexico and the Western United States, but were brought into the NYC area as cage birds in the 1930's. When pet stores found out they were a protected species (almost all passerines are), they released them, and the released birds began to breed. From those few dozen birds, the population of house finches in the northeastern states grew to over 10 million, and they began to spread southward.

The first accepted record of one appearing in Florida was in 1983. The birds now breed as far south as Tampa and Lakeland, with some isolated colonies appearing even farther south.

The malel house finch's color can vary from yellow to red, with the females seeming to prefer the reddest males.

So...they don't really belong here, but they sure are pretty, and I suspect there is not one thing we can do about them being here, so we may as well enjoy them.

Great pictures, Kara! Thanks for sharing!

Marcia

It is tough to say what belongs and what doesn't...We are in an ever changing world and don't we all want to push the zones with our plants? I love that you caught some of them in flight...very nice.

By the way the fly-by in the third picture is the Female. The eastern finches are in decline because of eye infections.

Joe

Great pics! I'm in the 'love the house finch' group. I really like their songs.

They started showing up in my yard about four years ago close to this time of year. They breed/live in my yard and seem to disappear (migrate?) in the late fall.

I have a lot of fruit trees so that may be what initially attracted them - that, and the sunflower seeds. ;-)

I've read that they eat fruit blossoms so the citrus farmers do not like the finches at all. The males love orange/red flowers which some how make them a darker red.

Sharbear, you make a good point for many plants and animals that expand their range on their own. In this particular case, these birds were brought east by humans wanting to sell them as cage birds, so their introduction to the eastern states is entirely man-caused. Whether they would ever have established themselves this far east is anybody's guess. I'm thinking probably not.

But they are here now, and I wouldn't mind having one show up at my feeder. In fact, I wouldn't mind having ANY birds show up at my feeder. Last week, my biggest tray had a red-shouldered hawk sitting in the center of it one afternoon. Everybody else is lying low for the time being. Not a single goldfinch or bunting has shown up yet, and might not at this late date. Still hoping, though.

Marcia

Kara - amazing pictures! I'd sure love to have some feeders here but when my neighbor put one out back we had rats in no time.

Marcia - bummer, red-shouldered hawks are cool, but not when they hang around too long....

Tom