Tag Archives: Purple Finches

Sunday – 2.5.2017

6:37 AM – We’re pleased to see that the meal worm feeder is attracting Bluebirds. Here’s a good video of one:

Although the Goldfinches are most numerous right now, we still have the Purple Finch and House Finch. The first video shows the Purple Finch sharing with the Goldfinches and some sparrows:

The second shows what I believe is a House Finch, also with Goldfinches. The color on this one looks more red than purple to me, but it’s easy to confuse the two. Easy for me, anyway.

4:14 AM – Raccoon was back last night, but thwarted by lack of feeders, and pepper suet. We took in all the ones on the deck, and it’s clear that the pepper suet worked. He didn’t even try for it. Instead he scavenged on the ground under the feeders. That’s fine, he’s welcome to that, as long as he’s gone when we let the dog out.

Saturday – 1.28.2017

4:25 PM – It was windy today. The motion detectors on the cameras are sensitive enough to react to tree limbs and bushes moving around, so we got a lot of ‘false positives’ – videos with no birds in them. Actually, there weren’t that many birds around, at least not as many as usual. Here’s a Pine Warbler at the suet feeder:

And here’s a male and female Purple Finch at the platform feeder.

2:55 AM – The new Trail Cam caught ‘Rocky’ coming and going three times. Unfortunately, there’s about a two second delay in the camera starting to record, so we just see a glimpse of him coming up the path. We get a better view as he goes back home. Maybe his den is in the small thicket in the lower corner of the yard. This is more activity than I really expected, and I think we’re not seeing all of it. The last video shows him coming up the hill at 2:46 AM, but not coming down. I’m sure this trail isn’t the only path he uses.

Coming:

Going:

Tuesday – 1.24.2017

2:40 PM – We saw a Goldfinch at the finch feeder. He spent a pretty good long time eating, so I got some pictures. Unfortunately, they’re really bad. I’ll post them below, anyway. Also managed to take a video, which came out better.

Here’s the Downy Woodpecker. I think. It’s possibly a Hairy Woodpecker, but those are supposed to be bigger with longer beaks. Either way, it’s the first time I’ve seen one. The camera battery died just after I started filming.

5:05 AM – These two videos show White Throated Sparrows (our most numerous visitors recently) squabbling for space at the feeder. In the first one a sparrow appears to ‘sucker punch’ another bird, flying in and pecking his head. After looking at it in slow motion, he’s actually swatting him with his wing. In the second, two of them have a kind of sparrow duel, with beaks, for position in the center of the feeder. This kind of thing goes on all the time, of course. I guess that’s why they call it ‘pecking order’.

Now the same video, slowed down to 40% of real time speed.

The duel:

In this video, you can see Mr. Raccoon in the background leaving the porch and walking along the path. We took the food in again, so there was nothing to attract him.

Finally, here’s the vivid Purple Finch from the still photos below. I haven’t seen him at the deck feeder before. He’s much more colorful than the usual Purple Finch, though unfortunately the camera doesn’t pick that up as much as I’d like.

Sunday – 1.22.2017

3:15 PM – The rain filled the deck platform feeder with water. It covered up the small seeds the Sparrows eat, resulting in some disappointed birds:

However, the black oil sunflower seeds preferred by the Cardinals floats. He experienced no interruption in service due to weather.

This Mourning Dove has a big enough beak to get whatever he wants out of the water.

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10:25 AM – Plenty of White Throated Sparrows this morning. They moved on and some Purple Finches took over. It’s interesting to watch the interaction between the male and female Finches. The male drives off one female, but allows another to stay in the feeder. His mate?

In the following clip, immediately afterwards, the male and female couple are sharing the feeder. When another female approaches, the male again drives her off.

In subsequent clips, the female finch drives off other females. I conclude that the male and female Finches are a couple, and have higher status than the ‘single’ females that approach the feeder. Or maybe not. One thing is clear, Mr. and Mrs. Purple Finch don’t like to share.

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12:50 AM – The cat that visits periodically came around a while ago, looking for nuts. We took in the deck platform feeder so as not to attract ‘Rocky’ Raccoon, so he had no luck. I’d put out food for the animal but I don’t want him there all the time, and don’t want all the other cats, raccons and possums that would follow him.

Saturday – 1.21.2017

3:00 PM – Some close up images of male Purple Finch. These were taken with a Nikon Coolpix L830 with 34x zoom lens, as an experiment. The videos that are regularly displayed are from the Arlo security cameras. With the Nikon it’s possible to get images and videos of the birds at the other feeders around the yard. But it’s not as easy as the automatic Arlo cams.

9:55 AM – The platform feeder on the deck doesn’t have drainage, so last night’s rain filled it up with water. Here’s a couple of birds coming to terms with that. They look disappointed, but I don’t have much sympathy with that. There are five other feeders around the yard. No one goes hungry. No bird left behind.

4:55 AM – For about 30 minutes last night, ‘Rocky’ Raccoon feasted at the platform feeder, and washed up in the bird bath. Here’s a sample of the videos we captured. He looked really hungry:

In this one he eats voraciously, then gets into the bird bath for a wash:

Finally, ‘Rocky’ overdoes it, and knocks the bath off the rail. Unlike past episodes, he didn’t fall.

As interesting as these videos are, we don’t really want ‘Rocky’ as a regular guest. We’ll probably start bringing the food in at night, and emptying the bird baths.

Thursday – 1.12.2016

2:20 PM – It’s a lot warmer, up into the 70’s, but the birds are still eating like it’s below freezing – that is to say, a lot. Here’s a Purple Finch and a Cardinal at the lunch counter:

These Cardinals have really strong beaks. Here’s a video of a male making short work of sunflower seeds:

And finally, a couple of really hungry Finches:

 

Wednesday – 1.11.2017

1:00 AM – Since the new platform feeder went up there’s a lot of activity on the deck. Here are some videos of typical bird action. The squirrels haven’t visited the new feeder yet. That will be interesting to watch.

Lots of Purple Finches, and one White Throated Sparrow:

Cardinal and Finch – the Finch isn’t intimidated by the bigger bird:

Pigeon (Mourning Dove) swilling non-stop:

Purple Finch runs off the other birds:

Tuesday – 1.10.2017

1:30 PM – The birdbath that was damaged by ice has been converted into a platform feeder. D put it up at about 11:30, by 11:32 there were birds in it. Seems to be very popular with the Tufted Titmouse, so far. This is a video of a couple Purple Finches having a snack.

Speaking of Purple Finches, this video shows what I think is actually a House Finch. The House variety have red head and breast. It’s hard to tell the difference. So far, the research I did only says that the Purple Finches are slightly smaller and ‘neater’ than the House Finch. Whatever that means. So, here is a House Finch, probably. Maybe.

 

Friday – 1.6.2017

9:40 AM – Tonight we’re supposed to get a couple of inches of snow. The temps will be below freezing, so tomorrow morning we’ll replace the ice with water in the baths, and keep an eye on it during the day.

Some activity this morning, nothing exciting, but this site is all about bird videos. So, here’s one of a Purple Finch sitting at the bath, thinking about something. His crest is clearly visible – I hadn’t noticed it before.

Here’s a Robin getting a long drink of water:

Finally, from yesterday, a Caroline Wren bathing: