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House finch babies and sightings

16 years ago

I looked out recently and notice that house finches are bring their baby to their feeder to feed them. It's kind of cute to see the babies sitting out on the feeder while mom pull seeds out of the feeder and drop it in the baby's mouth.

It's now late spring, I notice:

* Cardinals still come around, but now there's usually only one pair. They do come more often now that there are fewer grackles.

* The house sparrows have mostly disappeared.

* Chickadee's rarely come to the feeder any more.

* Gold finches rarely come to the feeder.

* Number of Grackles have dropped. I used to get a flock in early spring, but now one drops by every hour or so. Ditto for red wing black birds.

* No woodpeckers ever show up any more. The suet feeder is unused.

* Lots of mourning doves. Many hang out on my roof and then glide to the tube feeder. Weird to see mourning doves on tube feeder.

* Geese has disappeared. I think they like more open areas when they have kids.

* There are also fewer ducks, though I see them on my lawn in the morning.

* Coyote have disappeared.

* Robins are everywhere.

The most common birds near my feeders are mourning doves, house finches, grackles, red wing blackbirds, and cardinals.

Paul

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Comments (3)

donald lucius
16 years ago
i had one pair of house finches bring their babys 4 of them last week but they have went somewhere. Had one downey yesterday and a Lewis's woodpecker the day before.
only kinds in big numbers are the bullocks orioles and the western tanagers and lots of red wing blackbirds and some grosbeaks. one lone juniper titmouse comes occasionally. and the hummingbirds are rare this year. should have lots of little orioles and tanagers soon as they are nesting now
Elly_NJ
16 years ago
I live in central NJ, and we were hit hard with the finch conjunctivitis since 1994. I have not heard or seen one House finch this year, so it may have actually wiped them out. Not a tragedy since the birds took hold from escapees lost in the early 1900's. Possibly the small genetic pool had a role in preventing their immune system from surviving the disease? Not sure. But they are gone.
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paulsiu
Original Author
16 years ago
Elly,

My neighor said that finch conjunctivitis hit this area hard, too. Fortunately, all of the house finches are since return and are fairly numerous.

Just in case, I clean my bird feeder by hand and then run it through the dish washer + high heat to clean off the germs.

Paul

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