Purple Finch Time

Purple Finch Carpodacus purpureus

I love waking in the morning to the song of the Purple Finch. These finches are only visitors in our neighborhood but they brighten our lives for a few weeks each spring and fall while they are here.

John James Audubon wrote and interesting account of purple finch behavior: “They fly compactly, with an undulating motion, similar to that of the Common Greenfinch of Europe. They alight all at once, and after a moment of rest, and as if frightened, all take to wing again, make a circuit of no great extent, and return to the tree from which they had thus started, or settle upon one near it. Immediately after this, every individual is seen making its way toward the extremities of the branches, husking the buds with great tact, and eating their internal portion. In doing this, they hang like so many Titmice, or stretch out their necks to reach the buds below. Although they are quite friendly among themselves during their flight, or while sitting without looking after food, yet, when they are feeding, the moment one goes near another, it is strenuously warned to keep off by certain unequivocal marks of displeasure, such as the erection of the feathers of the head and the opening of the mouth. Should this intimation be disregarded, the stronger or more daring, of the two drives off the other to a different part of the tree. They feed in this manner principally in the morning, and afterwards retire to the interior of the woods. Towards sunset they reappear, fly about the skirts of the fields and along the woods, until, having made choice of a tree, they alight, and, as soon as each bird has chosen a situation, stand still, look about them, plume themselves, and make short sallies after flies and other insects, but without interfering with each other. "
Edwin Way Teale in his book, The American Seasons, recounts the unknowing role that Purple Finches played in the life of another outstanding pioneer ornithologist: In the mid 1800’s young Robert Ridgway used a muzzle-loading shotgun that his father had salvaged and rebuilt from a sunken river steamer to collect specimens of beautiful birds he had never seen before. Not knowing anything about taxidermy, Robert preserved the images of his specimens by painting pictures of them. At the suggestion of a friend, he sent the pictures off to Washington seeking identification of the birds. This innocent inquiry and the remarkable skill his paintings of the purple finches displayed, ultimately led to a lifelong carrier at the Smithsonian Institution during which he published more than 13,000 pages of materials on birds.