The Progeny
Beautiful Birds
We were quite taken by the arrival of these lovely birds to the feeder this morning. All school came to a halt as we tip-toed slowly over to the windows.
I told the kids I thought they might be Purple Finches...
...but upon closer examination I would guess they are the more common House Finch.
At one time this morning there were six of these attractive little guys hanging about. The males are the ones with the colors, which can vary according to how many berries they are able to incorporate into their diet. Also, the ones with the most red are supposed to survive the winter more easily.
These birds can hang around Iowa year round, though I don't recall ever seeing one before.
With a name like Carpodacus mexicanus it is easy to understand that originally these birds were only found in the southwestern United States and Mexico.
Sellers of exotic birds in 1940 advertised them on the east coast as the Hollywood Finch. Unfortunately for the sellers, this was slightly illegal, and to prevent getting caught, some were released into the wilds of Long Island. The birds then did what birds do....cavorted around, multiplied and began their nefarious campaign to take over the United States and eventually become one of the causes of Global Warming.
Of late there has been a type of disease which causes blindness and then death, somewhat depleting the numbers of the House Finch.
These birds are also known to be pests in orchards, but I figure we will be OK, since (excepting the apple trees) our little "orchard" hardly produces anything.
_______________
On a more annoying note, it appears we've once again been introduced to disease carrying organisms, some of which may have been viruses.
Carolyn woke up with a fever and shows signs of a cold.
Others have sore throats.
Sneezing has ensued.
Oh joy.
Tweet
I told the kids I thought they might be Purple Finches......but upon closer examination I would guess they are the more common House Finch.
At one time this morning there were six of these attractive little guys hanging about. The males are the ones with the colors, which can vary according to how many berries they are able to incorporate into their diet. Also, the ones with the most red are supposed to survive the winter more easily.
These birds can hang around Iowa year round, though I don't recall ever seeing one before.
With a name like Carpodacus mexicanus it is easy to understand that originally these birds were only found in the southwestern United States and Mexico.
Sellers of exotic birds in 1940 advertised them on the east coast as the Hollywood Finch. Unfortunately for the sellers, this was slightly illegal, and to prevent getting caught, some were released into the wilds of Long Island. The birds then did what birds do....cavorted around, multiplied and began their nefarious campaign to take over the United States and eventually become one of the causes of Global Warming.
Of late there has been a type of disease which causes blindness and then death, somewhat depleting the numbers of the House Finch.
These birds are also known to be pests in orchards, but I figure we will be OK, since (excepting the apple trees) our little "orchard" hardly produces anything.
_______________
On a more annoying note, it appears we've once again been introduced to disease carrying organisms, some of which may have been viruses.
Carolyn woke up with a fever and shows signs of a cold.
Others have sore throats.
Sneezing has ensued.
Oh joy.
Tweet
posted by Ma Hoyt | 1:14 PM
1 Comments:
We've had a pair of these house finches hanging around our feeder for the last couple weeks too.
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