[Birdtalk] Cassin's Finch Weirdness

[Tim Avery]

Cornell has a nice little page that my be helpful fo ryou Ann:

http://www.birds.cornell.edu/pfw/AboutBirdsandFeeding/finchIDtable.html

Male Cassin;s tend to be a more magena-pink than House, and females tend to be a more crsip gray than the brown of a House... There are a number of finer details that that link goes over.

Good Birding

Tim
  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Neville, Ann (KUCC) 
  To: birdtalk at utahbirds.org 
  Sent: Tuesday, December 18, 2007 8:28 AM
  Subject: RE: [Birdtalk] Cassin's Finch Weirdness


  Kris or whomever, 

  Could you please do a short refresher on how to tell a Cassin's from a House finch?  Obviously I'm showing my ignorance here, but I never feel positive about my IDs for these critters.  I have 50-100 finches feeding outside my office window and I know one of them HAS to be a Cassin's.  

   

  Did you know that the Cassin's finch is listed as Near Threatened on the International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources?  http://www.iucnredlist.org/search/details.php/53467/all

   

   

  Thanks, 

  Ann

   


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  From: birdtalk-bounces at utahbirds.org [mailto:birdtalk-bounces at utahbirds.org] On Behalf Of Colby Neuman
  Sent: Monday, December 17, 2007 11:46 PM
  To: birdtalk at utahbirds.org
  Subject: Re: [Birdtalk] Cassin's Finch Weirdness

   

  Kris and others,

  The Salt Lake CBC surprisingly missed Cassin's Finch this year as well.  Unfortunately, my parents house in Olympus Cove is outside the count circle because they've had between 2-5 Cassin's Finches coming for about the last three weeks.  They had one or two coming in October with about a three week hiatus in early to mid November.  I don't have ebird data from past years (trying to be diligent this year so I can start examining past data), but I seem to mostly remember Cassin's Finches showing up during migration at the their house.  

  Colby

  On Dec 17, 2007 8:46 PM, Stephen Peterson <cllslp at msn.com> wrote:


  I have had a couple of male and female Cassin's Finches that have been hanging around my feeders and
  birdbath for the past two months here in Logan. I first saw them the end of October. They do not make a regular appearance 
  everyday, but show up maybe once or twice a week, and only for a short duration. I saw a single male just yesterday afternoon.
  He stopped by just to get a drink and then took off.

  Stephen
  ---------------------------------------- 
  > From: kristinpurdy at comcast.net
  > To: birdtalk at utahbirds.org
  > Date: Mon, 17 Dec 2007 17:45:21 -0700
  > Subject: [Birdtalk] Cassin's Finch Weirdness 

  >
  > Wasatch Audubon didn't record Cassin's Finches on our bird count on
  > Saturday, so it was a welcome surprise to Jack Rensel to find six under his
  > feeder in Ogden, Weber County, yesterday morning. He lives in the count 
  > circle and hasn't seen them in his yard for six weeks to two months.
  >
  > I conveniently arranged some yard birding around lunchtime by locking myself
  > out of the house and then waiting for my husband to come home and rescue me. 
  > I was killing time in the yard and aimed my binocs at a finch in treetops
  > not visible from inside. It was the first male Cassin's Finch I've seen in
  > the yard since early November. Another was across the street in my 
  > neighbor's hawthorne with a swarm of robins and House Finches. How weird is
  > that? I wouldn't have seen these birds had my keys been in my pocket where
  > they were supposed to be before I locked the door. Now, that's a 
  > lemons-to-lemondade scenario!
  >
  > The coincidence of neither Jack nor I hosting this species in a couple
  > months and then both of us seeing them in our yards in successive days is
  > too much. Has anyone else seen Cassin's Finches after their extended 
  > absence?
  >
  > Today was another two-Merlin day also; one bird was perched precariously in
  > a treetop in my neighborhood, tail bobbing like a kestrel as it failed to
  > curl those long toes around a skinny branch; the other was on the same old 
  > power pole across from the Denny's on South Harrison Blvd about 1/10 mile
  > north of the Harrison-US-89 intersection. That's the third time in about
  > three weeks for a Merlin on that same pole. 
  >
  > Kris
  >
  >
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