Red
House Finch
(Carpodacusmexicanus)
Photographed in the wild,
Dana Point, California Nov,2008
Kahala, Hawaii Mar 2014
A bright red and brown-striped bird
of the cities and suburbs, the House Finch comes readily to feeders. It also
breeds in close association with people, and often chooses a hanging plant in
which to put its nest.
The House Finch was originally a bird of the
southwest United States and Mexico. In 1940 a small number of finches were
turned loose on Long Island, New York, and they quickly started breeding. They
spread across the entire eastern United States and southern Canada within the
next 50 years.
The red color of a male comes from
pigments that it gets in its food during molt. The more pigment in the food,
the redder the male. Females prefer to mate with the reddest male they can
find, perhaps assuring that they get a capable male who can find enough food to
feed the nestlings.
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