The Purple Finch has white unspotted undertail coverts while Cassin's
Finches have white spotted undertail coverts. On House Finches, the
dingy breast color and the fuzzy stripes continue down to the undertail
coverts. If you can see the coverts (good luck), you should be able to
be pretty sure of what you have.

The red on top of the Cassin's male seems significantly richer and
brighter than the wash over the rest of the head, throat, and breast,
and the red is mostly or entirely absent from the back. The red on the
Purple Finch is more uniform. House Finch males have red or red-orange
"eyebrows" with a brownish cap above, a feature lacking on the other
species.

Female Purple Finches are easy to tell from female House Finches -- they
are so much whiter in general, and usually have quite distinct whitish
supercilia and malar stripes. Cassin's and Purple Females are hard to
separate without an undertail covert view.

I have never knowingly seen Cassin's Finch West of the Cascades.


== Michael Hobbs
== Redmond WA
== mikeho at microsoft.com

>----------
>From: Jack Castro[SMTP:jfc at macsch.com]
>Sent: Friday, January 10, 1997 4:20 PM
>To: tweeters at u.washington.edu
>Subject: RE: Could it be a Cassins Finch?
>
>I saw the same bird again this morning. This time from both the side and head
>on. The streaks on the breast look to wide and "fuzzy" to be a Cassins Finch
>compared to what I see in my field guides. Therefore, I think this is just a
>Purple Finch afterall.
>
>Has anybody spotted any Cassin Finches West of the Cascades recently?
>
>Jack
>