Normally House Finches winter over in this area but for reasons known only to the birds, they all disappeared in early December and are just now starting to return. According to the state Audubon Society Purple Finches winter here but they are cyclical. About once every decade we see an over abundance of them, but generally they are rare and in some years totally absent. I went back and did some additional research on the House Finch. It appears that they are really a non-native species that were originally kept as cage birds. A small number of them were accidentally released on Long Island,N.Y. in 1940 and they first appeared here in Ohio in 1964. By 1980 they had spread across the entire state of Ohio and have established a very successful breeding ground here. What I found most interesting in my research is the fact that the railroads are attributed with the wide spread of both House Finches and the European House Sparrow. Both species were initially released in the New York area. Having been introduced into an urban habitat they were initially unfamiliar with the local flora and fauna, and therefore relied heavily upon man made food sources. It is believed that many initially found the most abundant sources of food near warehouses or food processing plants where grain or other foodstuffs gets spilled from railroad cars during the loading and unloading process. Some of the birds were inadvertently closed up in the railroad cars when the doors were closed and they were transported to distant cities before the cars were opened again. This accounts for why their is an abundance of these birds in urban areas while they are often considered rare in rural areas.

Well these barn swallows have been re-furbishing this same nest on our porch year after year. There really is no other location on the porch or nearby that would be practical or safe for the swallows to nest. This southwestern corner is under the eaves above our steep staircase, high up and inaccessible to predators. I don't know for sure they are the *same* two swallows year after year, but there is only the one nest. Meanwhile Mrs Finch is sitting on the nest and occasionally perching on the edge to turn her eggs. I imagine Mr Finch takes over nest sitting duties, although I haven't witnessed the changing of the guards. I do see him sometimes land on the ledge and sometimes in the little crabapple tree nearby. It is totally strange to see the pair of barn swallows arriving at dusk to spend each night perched next to the nest. I wonder if one or both could be last year's barn swallow babies.

Cute! I've seen variants before, but I don't let House Finches eat at my feeders any more. Strangely, when one lands on my feeder and I walk towards the window, the House Finches fly away while the American Golfinches and others stay on the feeders. After a few times they don't return. Also, a baby squirrel polished off my fruit slices, so I also walked toward it, gently telling it the fruit was for the birds and it never came back.

Cute birder. We get alot of them at our feeders. They do vary from the colors you mentioned and red, too.