Purple Finch Help

[boatfixer]

How many varieties of purple finch do we have around here? We seem to have 2 different birds that, according to what I search online for, say they are both purple finchs. 1 is more "stout", the other is more slender.

This is the chubby one

[Steve Foss]

Bruce, individual birds can look stout or slim depending on whether their feathers are fluffed up for warmth or not.

However, it's likely you have both house finches and purple finches in your area.

They look very similar, but any good field guide (Sibley, National Geographic, Peterson's) will show you both species and the field marks that separate them.

This bird looks like a house finch.

[boatfixer]

Steve, I should have added that the beaks are also different. I havn't been able to capture the other, but here is a link to a photo of the other variety.

http://www.bird-friends.com/pics/PurpleFinch/PurpleFinch0LR.jpg

this is the one I have always called a purple finch

[Steve Foss]

That picture you linked to is of a purple finch, yes.

There is only one variety of purple finch that occurs here. There is a Pacific and an eastern variety, according to Sibley, and the Pacific variety stays out by the Pacific. There is no difference in the beaks between the two varieties. The beaks are slightly different on purple finches vs house finches.

Again, feather fluffing can really vary the appearance of birds. The one in the first picture is not a different variety because it looks chubby -- that's just its way of fluffing up its feathers to increase air pockets and provide more insulation. And I believe the bird in your first picture is a house finch.

I doubt very much that you have differing varieties of purple finch. It's possible you might have all purple finches and one or more have slightly deformed bills (some diseases that hang around feeding stations cause this). Much more likely that you have both purple finches and house finches, as do most backyard bird feeders in the northern Midwest.

Online guides can be confusing and unreliable. They almost all are based on photographs rather than illustrations and, while it doesn't seem like it should make sense, it's much easier to represent field marks with illustrations than photos.

Hope all this helps in any way.

[boatfixer]

Always a big help Steve, thats why I'm not afraid to ask.

Thanks.