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Tom Grey | all galleries >> North American Birds by Type >> Songbirds >> Finches >> Purple Finches > Purple Finch, year-old male, singing
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03-MAY-2013 Tom Grey

Purple Finch, year-old male, singing

Stanford campus

Song delivered frequently over several days from treetops around my house on the Stanford campus; it is a short (five-note) short version, with three notes around the same pitch and the last two both with rising pitch, a melody a bit like the Swainson's Thrush song, but with the tonality of a regular male Purple Finch song. I was finally able to get this photo, distant and backlit, of the bird singing. I've never previously found a Purple Finch in my neighborhood. I originally thought it was a female, though there are no reports of them singing from the tops of trees as males do. But I learned that year-old males have female plumage, but also sing and mate; that is what this bird is.


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