Finch - House or Purple
Feb 17, 2015 23:27:31 #
This is the time of the year in North Carolina that the Finches take over the bird feeder and empty it on the ground. I am not good at bird identification but I think these are House Finches, mostly females. Any idea what the white guy is?
I did not do a good job of setting up the camera. The photos were taken through a window with a D750 18-300mm. Setting for two of the pictures were AF-A 1/640 f6.3 ISO 3200.
I did not do a good job of setting up the camera. The photos were taken through a window with a D750 18-300mm. Setting for two of the pictures were AF-A 1/640 f6.3 ISO 3200.
Feb 17, 2015 23:40:07 #
I would guess that it is a Gold Finch - male in winter garb. Just a guess, though.
Feb 18, 2015 00:00:38 #
I suspect that they're Purple Finches, though that's a tough call since I can't see enough detail on the males to confirm that. In any case the 'white' one is also a male but it has Leucism. That's a recessive gene, that some birds have, restricting pigmentation to certain parts of their plumage creating the light patches. Hope this helps.
Feb 18, 2015 09:25:07 #
Joe F.N. wrote:
I suspect that they're Purple Finches, though that's a tough call since I can't see enough detail on the males to confirm that. In any case the 'white' one is also a male but it has Leucism. That's a recessive gene, that some birds have, restricting pigmentation to certain parts of their plumage creating the light patches. Hope this helps.
Thank you Joe for your informative reply. I had to lookup Leucism and found this link. http://feederwatch.org/unusual-bird/female-house-finch-partial-leucism/ I had no idea about this condition and next time I will take better care on camera setting.
Feb 18, 2015 09:55:02 #
I'm glad you looked it up. Here is another one. This is 'Lucy'a Chickadee. I photographed her for 5 years. This condition does nothing to hamper their health.
Feb 18, 2015 11:31:51 #
Leucism--never know what you're going to learn here. I took these pictures of a grackle that appears to have the condition. I just thought it was really old . . .
Feb 18, 2015 17:43:04 #
The white guy has been confirmed by Dr Bill Hilton of the Hilton Pond Center http://www.hiltonpond.org/ as a leucistic male Purple Finch.
Thanks all for your input.
Thanks all for your input.
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