Do you happen to have any cool knowledge or pictures or really anything about the Purple Finch (Haemorhous purpureus)? I found out about them recently and i am IN LOVE
Purple Finches:
I don't have a lot of interesting facts about them. They are often mistaken for House Finches, which they resemble, but they aren't very urban, preferring to nest in coniferous forests or mixed hardwood coniferous forests.
"Adult male Purple Finches have a reddish streaked back with more red on the face and neck than adult male House Finches, which have brown streaking on the back and some brown on the face."
Here's a post I made about their name a while back...
Purple Finch (Haemorhous purpureus), family Fringillidae, order Passeriformes, Michigan, USA
- Yes yes yes, I know. We all know this bird isn’t purple. You’re not that clever for noticing.
- The word purple, historically, referred to deep shades of red (crimson), and not necessarily violet.
photograph by Glen Noyer (@glen.noyer)
Purple Finch (Haemorhous purpureus), male, family Fringillidae, Cap Tourmente National Wildlife Area, Quebec, Canada
photograph by Cephas
Ooh I got something! Did you know both the house finch and purple finch sometimes come in yellow or orange?
The red pigments in birds are often due to their diet - such as the lovely pinks in flamingos. If they get less access to carotenoids from berries, they might lose the bright red color and go yellow like this fellow here! Or at least that's one theory... according to David Sibley (yes, from the Sibley guides) it can happen from hormonal causes as well. That is, a male with weak testosterone or a female with strong testosterone would show streaking and yellow feathers on the head and back. Article:
Such may very well be the case for this bird:
Female purple finches lack the red coloration, they're stripey brown and white birds. This one MIGHT be a male or a female with hormonal something or other going on!
Here's another funky yellow purple finch, this one also had piebaldism according to the person who took the photo:
This one looks like an actual genetic mutation, though I'm no expert in the matter. Like albinism or leucism that suppress melanin (black) pigments in other animals, there are other mutations that can block certain pigment production or create an overabundance of them. The term for a bird producing more yellow pigments is xanthochromatism. Source: https://laura-mountainspring.pixels.com/featured/yellow-and-orange-purple-finch-laura-mountainspring.html
