On Fri, 3 May 1996, Dale Goble wrote:

>
> > Another Palouse update and a question: I had a male Purple Finch at my
> > feeder in Albion this morning. I had seen him before, but unfortunately
> > did not record the date. I made a table of all my feeder species (13 now)
> > and the original date they showed up. I put a check every day that I see
> > that species so I can keep track of them all.
>
> there is no really tactful way to ask, are you sure it was a purple? they
> are at least uncommon if not rare.
>
> dale goble
> moscow
>

I knew someone would say that! :) The House Finches were chasing him
around the tree, so I got a good look at the undertail coverts. They
were not streaked. Also, the face pattern looked just like my Nat'l Geo
picture. Nat'l Geo also says of Cassins: "crimson of adult males's cap
ends sharply at brown-streaked nape" which was not apparent. Is
there anything else I should look for in distinguishing Cassin's from
Purple?

I saw the finch in question yesterday afternoon, but not yet this
morning.

Sherrie
hocketts at vetmed.wsu.edu