Purple finches are common winter visitors to our area, the males adding a splash of color to our yards and feeders. Similar in size and color to our resident house finches, purple finches breed in the southern boreal forest of Canada, but move south into the U.S. as far as the Gulf coast during winter, following the cone crops of pine, spruce, tamarack, and birch. Purple finches have large beaks well-adapted to cracking the hard seeds of these trees to get at the nuts inside. They also eat the soft buds that appear on these trees in early winter, which is thought to beneficially prune the limbs to ensure more sunlight reaches their leaves.

The "winter finches" including the purple finch, pine siskin, redpoll, and evening and pine grosbeaks are said to be "irruptive" migrants, moving south out of the boreal forest only when cone crops are poor. However, purple finches move south nearly every winter and large numbers of them were already recorded moving past the Hawk Ridge Observatory in Duluth in late September this year. You may very well see one at your feeder this winter if you offer black oil sunflower seeds, Nyjer, or millet.

While purple finches look similar to house finches, the male purple finch has much more red on its body, especially down its back, where the house finch male is grey. They also have a raspberry red tuft of feathers on their crown that house finches lack. The females and juveniles of the two species can be harder to distinguish, but purple finches have bolder dark streaking on their breasts and a distinct whiteish eyebrow that sets off a noticeably darker cheek than the female house finch.

In winter, purple finches will often forage and roost with mixed flocks of pine siskin and American goldfinches, where they are usually dominant over the goldfinches but subordinate to the siskins. A group of finches together is called a "charm", "company", or "trembling" of finches. Purple finches sing a pleasing musical warble, and they make a clicking sound when flying. Their flight is undulating, much like a goldfinch. During mating, the males will often jump up into the air a foot or more and puff out their chests to impress a prospective mate.

The purple finch is the official state bird of New Hampshire, joining a club of 18 other species that are the state bird of a single U.S. state.

We’d love to see your photos and videos of Purple Finches and House Finches throughout the month, share them with us in-store or on our Facebook!