COBirders,
The day before yesterday (Tuesday) I was surprised to see a finch on my feeder in NW Custer County (9200 ft.) that was very similar to but with some obviously different field marks from those of the many Cassin's finches that have visited for the last five months. It was a female-plumaged bird with a distinct white eye lines, very dark auriculars and whitish malar stripes, pretty much identical to photo #2 on Cornell's ID website http://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Purple_Finch/id. With its head turned directly away from me I could see clearly the eye stripes which ended at the nape. However, at the time I didn't have my camera ready and wasn't able to spend the time necessary to try to get photos until yesterday. I did get a couple of pics of (a) bird(s) that didn't seem quite as striking as the one I saw the day before, plus one has a very thin eye ring, more in keeping with Cassin's. Favoring the Purple Finch ID is its notched tail. I can provide a copy for anyone interested (being an old geezer I don't have a smart phone, blog or other social networking connections). Any help will be appreciated. Leon Bright Pueblo and Custer County -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Colorado Birds" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected]. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/cobirds?hl=en.
