I believe my back yard holds more finches per square foot than any other piece of real estate in the world. It’s like a Finches Unlimited back there.
I have both gold finches and house finches, but I’ve never seen a genuine purple finch at my feeders. I guess they don’t have room.
We always hang a thistle feeder or two and the finches love those, but what they hammer from first light till dusk is the feeder with sunflower hearts and chips. This is the universal food for all birds. It’s a little pricey, but all birds – and most especially finches – love it.
The male house finch is often confused with the male purple finch. Both have dull red heads and scattered red feathers on their chests and backs, but the purple finch has a small red crest, like a titmouse. The feathers on the more common house finch males are smooth on the head.
House finches are partial migrators, occasionally moving to find food, but they never leave my yard. They are daily visitors in winter, spring, summer and fall. They often find an empty flowerpot and set up house keeping there. They have one nest per year with 4 to 6 eggs. I am seeing young finches right now, so they must have recently fledged.
These are cheerful and social birds, almost always found in small flocks. When they hit the feeder, they jockey for position before securing a sunflower heart or two and flying up to the tree limbs to enjoy and then splashing in the bird bath. They also visit the suet feeders and the thistle feeder, but their first love is sunflower hearts.
No matter how many, all finches are welcomed guests in my back yard.