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Nature Done Wright
Incorporating the Celery Farm and Screech Owl Companion blogs
October 19, 2012
Monday Mystery Mastered
Congrats to everyone who ID'd this bird as a female Purple Finch. It was a toughie for me — just never see many, or didn't until this month.
1 comment
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Hi Jim,
This is a tricky puzzle because:
— Adult AND young female Purple Finches are brown and white overall (like the bird in the photo).
— But so are first-year (hatch-year) male Purple Finches.
Therefore, if a brown-and-white plumaged Purple Finch lands on a limb near us, we can’t distinguish females from young males.
It takes the males two years to develop their gorgeous raspberry wash (their full mature plumage).
Some second-year male Purple Finches (not yet fully molted) will show only hints of purple. There was one of these critters this morning at the Celery Farm, near the Butterfly Garden. And I got soaking wet admiring him as the rain came in sheets.
I suppose there are some experts who can determine the sex of a brown-and-white Purple Finch just by its plumage. Perhaps there are certain characteristic of the bird’s molt. (If that expert is reading this, let us know what to look for).
But for most — if not all — of us, to know for sure what we have when we see a brown-and-white Purple Finch, we’d need to get the bird in the hand and check the skull’s development (to determine age) and also check for a brood patch or a cloacal protruberance (to determine sex).
Obviously, this type of work calls for a licensed bird bander.
Cheers and thanks for posting this,
John
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1 comment
John Workman
Hi Jim,
This is a tricky puzzle because:
— Adult AND young female Purple Finches are brown and white overall (like the bird in the photo).
— But so are first-year (hatch-year) male Purple Finches.
Therefore, if a brown-and-white plumaged Purple Finch lands on a limb near us, we can’t distinguish females from young males.
It takes the males two years to develop their gorgeous raspberry wash (their full mature plumage).
Some second-year male Purple Finches (not yet fully molted) will show only hints of purple. There was one of these critters this morning at the Celery Farm, near the Butterfly Garden. And I got soaking wet admiring him as the rain came in sheets.
I suppose there are some experts who can determine the sex of a brown-and-white Purple Finch just by its plumage. Perhaps there are certain characteristic of the bird’s molt. (If that expert is reading this, let us know what to look for).
But for most — if not all — of us, to know for sure what we have when we see a brown-and-white Purple Finch, we’d need to get the bird in the hand and check the skull’s development (to determine age) and also check for a brood patch or a cloacal protruberance (to determine sex).
Obviously, this type of work calls for a licensed bird bander.
Cheers and thanks for posting this,
John