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

Katie, I'm not sure what you meant by an airlock. You mean a passage so they can get inside and outside? Or a way you can get in and they can't get out? A few suggestions. Make sure you get welded wire that's made for bird cages. A lot of places on the internet sell that, and large retail bird shops can get it for you. The Aviary in Perrine, between So Miami and Homestead has it. Since it's for finches, I would build it out of 1 X 1 wood frame. With 1/2 X 1 inch welded wire. The wire comes in 3 and 4 ft widths. Build all six panels separate (four sides, roof and floor), with welded wire on both sides of the wood frame. Varmits can't reach through and grab your birds that way. You can use a staple gun with SS staples for that, goes real fast. Then drill holes and put it together with SS screws and lock nuts, so you can take it apart if you ever need to. A 6 X 8 X 4 aviary built this way is strong and not heavy at all. Two people can move it with no problems. If you need a way to get in, just build a separate box with another door that you can attach to the outside. That you can use just one layer of welded wire. Build the door to the inside as a 1/2 door, open at the bottom. The birds will go up when you try to get in and not past you and into the airlock. Another trick is to paint the wire, both sides, with dark brown annodized paint. You can roll that on. It makes the wire disappear. Personally, I would have the cage above the ground with no contact. Birds get a lot a parasites and disease from dirt. If you want to put them on dirt, I suggest you get a gallon of Novalsan and learn how to use it. Novalsan you can get at most any large feed and seed farm supply. Corrie

Hi, sorry, a little late to the party. I just moved to CO and this is my first winter here, used to live in MI. In MI, I rarely saw a finch in the winter. Here is CO, I have a lot of finches (red right now but some were yellow in the fall). I also get titmice (titmouses?), chickadees, downy woodpeckers, and flickers on a daily basis. Anyway, I have both black oilers in a tube and suet basket. The finches, titmice, and chickadees seem to like the suet. They eat both the seed and the suet, but the suet is what attracted them in the first place.

i'm just the opposite here this year. have had lots of house finches and pine siskins hanging around all year long and not going to the mountains in the hot summer. and staying here in the worst of winter. the house finches have had multiple broods of young ones from early spring up into late summer.