Cooperative Living November/December 2018 - 15

FeatheredFriends | Story and artwork by Carl " Spike " Knuth, Contributing Columnist
Eastern Purple Finch
A
compact flock of 15 to 20
small birds made its way in
undulating flight through a
mixed stand of hemlocks and cedars.
They meandered, almost slalomlike,
through the tops, then filtered
into and settled down in one tree,
landing almost in unison.
After a brief period, they all
suddenly took flight again, as if
nervous or startled. They flew off a
short distance, then suddenly
circled back to land in the very tree
they had just vacated.
These were purple finches,
members of probably the largest
family of birds. It is said that there
are about 1,200 species and subspecies
of finches found all over the
world, except in Australia. In
particular, they are distributed
through the boreal forests of
Eurasia and North America.
One such finch is the eastern
purple finch, which is a bird of the
Canadian and Alleghenian regions.
While it is named purple finch,
its colors are more reddish. Some may
see them as crimson or rose red, others
as raspberry or wine red, and yet others
may call it magenta. Measuring about
6 inches long, this bird's conical bill
is thick and larger in proportion to
its body than that of other finches.
Of three similar western finches, the
house finch was originally native to
the southwest but was introduced
to the eastern United States in the
1940s, and is now a bird common
all over the continent. Its color is a
duller or tomato red.
The scientific classification of the
purple finch is Carpodacus
purpureus; Carpodacus a Greek
word meaning " fruit-biting. " Some
of its common names include red
co-opliving.com
Members of
probably the
largest family
of birds.
linnet, purple linnet, or purple grosbeak.
Adult males have a crown and head
of deep raspberry red, especially in
winter. Its rump is a paler red and its
back and shoulders a reddish-brown.
The wings and tail are light-brown;
the breast has a reddish wash with
streaks of red and brown on the breast
and flanks. The abdomen is white,
streaked with brown with under-tail
coverts white. The females are olivegray
or brownish-gray above, heavily
streaked with dusky and white on the
breast and flanks, and an eye stripe
and an olive-grayish cheek patch.
Purple finches are especially
gregarious in winter, when they travel
in flocks of anywhere from 12 to 40
birds with females and young usually
outnumbering the males. The flocks
are quite noisy as they move about the
upper canopies of conifers. Their call
note is a sharp, metallic " pik, " or
" chip-chee, " when in flight. The song
is described as a long, rambling
warble or trill. Audubon said of their
song, it's " sweet and continued. "
While most purple finches will
winter south of their breeding range,
some as far as the Gulf Coast, many
will remain quite far north. They begin
pairing off in March or April. The males
perform a courtship flight rising high
in the air, then descending in wide
circles on fluttering wings. Then they
may join a female on a tree branch with
fanned tails and raised crown feathers.
Nests are usually built 5 to 60
feet up in conifers like spruce, cedar,
hemlock or pines, rarely in a
deciduous shrub. The shallow,
almost flat nest is constructed of small
twigs, grasses, vegetable fibers, and
lined with fine grasses and animal hair.
The hen lays four to six greenishblue
eggs that are spotted with brown,
black and purple. They hatch in
about 13 days. The young are fed
by both parents on a diet of insects,
seeds and berries, crushed or
mushed by the parents. In another
14 days the young are fledged.
Purple finches feed on the buds
and flowers of numerous deciduous
trees, especially fruit trees like
cherries; and on dogwood berries,
elderberries and seeds of many trees
and shrubs. They favor open forests
with clearings and swamps
especially where spruce, cedar,
tamarack and pines are growing.
Come winter, many finches
remain in the north, even in their
northern breeding range. They are
prone to wandering erratically at
this time in travels often
determined by their food supply.
Sexes often flock up separately
and migrations can be east-west
as well as north-south.
These periodic " irruptions " may
carry them into regions far beyond
their breeding range. Flocks may
show up suddenly and remain for
a day or two, or as long as a week
as they forage. Traveling long
distances, they show up in
unexpected places. Sometimes
they are joined by pine siskins,
crossbills and redpolls and they
often depart as suddenly as they
had appeared.
Purple finches are common at
one season or another in Virginia,
Maryland and Delaware, especially
in the Alleghenies and
Appalachians, but also in the
forested coastal regions. Should
there be some especially cold
winter weather in the north, be
alert for visits from the purple
finch and others. 
November-December 2018 | Cooperative Living | 13
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Cooperative Living November/December 2018

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