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Birding Colorado Springs: Finches

Birds commonly seen in Colorado Springs and surrounding areas.

Finches

Finches are smallish song birds noted for their comparatively large, conical beaks.Their beaks are specialized for opening tough seeds, but as with many birds, they may also consume insects. The vocalizations of finches tend to sound "rich".

American Goldfinch

https://www.flickr.com/photos/virgomerry/206509151/
Author: **Mary** Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 2.0 Generic

Info (All About Birds) Song (Macaulay Library) Video (YouTube)
  • Small songbirds. Males are noticeably bright yellow in spring andsummer, drab in fall and winter; females are drab all year
  • Rich voice quality is akin to that of the House Finch
  • Flies in a rollercoaster pattern
  • Often comes to feeders

Pine Siskin

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Pine_Siskin_male_RWD.jpg
Author: DickDaniels (https://carolinabirds.org). Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported

Info (All About Birds) Song (Macaulay library) Video (YouTube)
  • Very small finch, related to goldfinches; streaky with yellow wing bars
  • Irregular in its range, especially in winter
  • Will come to feeders

House Finch

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:House_Finch-27527-2.jpg
Author: Ken Thomas. Public Domain.

Info (All About Birds) Song (Macaulay Library) Video (YouTube)
  • Song made up of melodic conversational phrases ending with an emphatic buzz
  • Adult males have variable patches of red or rosy-red; females and juveniles are drab
  • Common visitor to feeders
  • Formerly a western species, now widespread across the U.S.

Lesser Goldfinch

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:%E2%99%82_lesser_goldfinch.jpg
Author: Matt Knoth. Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic

Info (All About Birds) Song (Macaulay library) Video (YouTube)
  • Smaller than American Goldfinch, but similar in behavior and song
  • Adult male summer plumage varies; some have solid black back and head contrasting with yellow front
  • Female is very drab