Friday, May 21, 2010

Welcome Back!


This is one of the little house finches
that was happy to be back at the feeders this evening.
It seemed like he was heaving a sigh of relief when he arrived!
Poor thing!

And this handsome guy is one of those house finches
that is more orange than red -
I love the color!
So nice to have you back, boys!

3 comments:

Jayne said...

They are so common and yet, when you look closely at them, they each have their own variation of color. This from Cornell...

"In the wild, three carotenoid pigments found in natural foods give House Finches their color. Beta-carotene produces yellow to orange colors, isocryptoxanthin produces orange colors, and echinenone produces red colors.
Yellow House Finches are frequently seen in the southwest and Hawaii where natural foods are low in some of these carotenoids. In the east birds often feed on the high-carotenoid fruits of ornamental plants."


Fascinating!

Ruth's Photo Blog said...

These birds are a welcome sight at the feeders.Enjoy them and all the others.Have a great weekend.
Blessings,Ruth

P said...

Very nice pictures!