English name : Purple Finch
French name : Roselin pourpré
Latin name : Carpodacus purpureus
Breadth : 25 cm
Length : 15 cm
Weight : 25 g
This finch seems to have been dipped in raspberry juice. It has slightly pronounced colored linings on the wings and back. Bands of Purple finch gather at birdfeeders, females and young males of one year who resemble the females. Come autumn the coloring of the male does tarnish slightly and becomes dull.
Bird Feeder for the Purple Finch
HABITAT
Coniferous and mixed forests.
NESTING
The Purple Finch prefers nesting horizontally in conifers on a branch that is between 1 and 18 m from the ground. The female builds the nest that is composed of twigs, grass, strips of bark, rootlets and is decorated with fine grass and hair.
Eggs, appr. four (4) : 20 x 14 mm, oval to short oval. The shell is smooth and slightly glossy, very pale blue and marked with specks and dots of brown and black usually concentrated around the cap. Incubation is assured by the female towards the end of May or beginning of June and lasts about 13 days. The male is responsible for nourishing the female during this time. The young are born altricial, are educated by both parents, and leave the nest approximately 14 days after hatching.
Royal Alberta Museum : Eggs of Alberta
FOOD
Seeds and insects of all kinds, seeds from weeds, and berries.
Your charter of the preferred food of your birds
MIGRATION
Southern United States and Mexico.
Cornell Ornithology Lab
Websites for additional information on the Purple Finch :
United States : Cornell Lab of Ornithology
The Museum of Civilization : Audubon, Paint, Nature and Adventure
Definition: altricial
Consult the glossary of the Canadian Wildlife and Flora Service
Ornithology page on the Purple Finch