Purple finch........I think?

I always have trouble telling the purple finch from the house finch in spite of having hoards of the house finches around. It seems whenever what I think to be a purple finch shows up I lack the confidence to say definately what breed it really is. Perhaps it is because I don't get the purple finch that often and they don't seem to stay when they do stop by.

C&C always welcome.

Hello Mike,
Have not seen you in sometime, Good to see you... That is a Purple Finch and Nice shot at that, theirs waves of them coming through as they head North.

Great IQ.

Hi Dan and thanks! I'm still snapping away with the good old 300. Just haven't been anywhere different and mostly the same old shots of the same old birds so I haven't been posting too much. We must get together one of these days.

Thanks to you also KP

According to my bird book, that is a house finch. The purple finches have "bold white eyebrows". Either way, great shot.

You know, I may take that back, looking at the picture that little light area behind the eye might qualify as a bold white eyebrow. Even the bird book says they typically hang out together and are very hard to tell apart.

Thanks for the info mckinley!

it's a lovely shot Mike

Beautiful shot, Mike, but I share the problem: I can never figure out, is that a raspberry-ish house finch or a purple finch...

He doesn't look like any of our house finches.

munroe - Judy - George thanks a lot.

I think the whiter belly gives me the biggest impession that it is a purple finch.

What ever he is I think he is gorgeous. I wish I had some at my feeder. Very nice shot

trmwf wrote in post #12275741
munroe - Judy - George thanks a lot.

I think the whiter belly gives me the biggest impression that it is a purple finch.

This, I think, is it. The House usually has a red "bib" running down onto the breast...

nice shot, though.

beautiful House Finch Mike, great shot! he has a lot of color but the chest should not have those brown stripes and should be more.... purple

I'm voting Purple finch on this one for three reasons: wingtips on this bird appear to extend too far to be a House finch (they don't usually extend past the uppertail coverts on H. finches), the dark stripe coming down from the lower mandible is an indication of a Purple finch, and the bill appears to be more pointed than that of a House finch.