If you haven’t seen any finches at your feeders lately, it’s because they are all over in my yard, and I mean all of them. I have never seen so many finches. They are like a cast of thousands in a Cecil B. DeMille epic film.
The finches I speak of are house finches. Some confuse them with purple finches because the male house finch has a reddish tint. The females are rather ordinary looking with a plain brown body and a streaked chest.
Finches aren’t migratory, unless their food sources dry up. We have them year round in our yard. The reason I have so many this winter is because my main feeder is filled with sunflower hearts. The little guys really love sunflower hearts. Two or three gulps of seed will fill their small stomachs.
The house finch is a social bird, gathering in flocks of a dozen or more. They raise two clutches per year with 4 or 5 pale blue eggs per nest. While nesting, the male delivers food to the incubating hen.
Unfortunately, house finches are prone to an eye disease that causes blindness and then starvation. About three years ago, I noticed that affliction among many in our resident flock, but, fortunately, I haven’t seen any signs of that disease in the last year or so.
The friendly little birds have a loud, cheerful warble. Their songs can brighten an otherwise dreary day. You know, it’s nice to have a finch around the house.