Date: 12/30/20 12:21 pm From: Bill Bousman <barlowi...> Subject: Re: [southbaybirds] Help with backyard visitors ID: House finch or purple finch?
As you suggest, Purple Finch and Pine Siskin. The female Purple Finch and immature males are almost identical. The larger bill and the white supercilium back of the eye are the quick ways to tell them from the House Finch, but the later also has blurry streaks and a gray-brown ground color where the Purple Finch has white offsetting the brown stripes. The bill of the Pine Siskin is small (compared to a Purple) and pointed. The females show hardly any yellow, but look carefully at the base of the primaries and secondaries and you can see pale yellow, something you won't see on the Purple/House finches.
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