>>On Fri, 10 Apr 98 16:50:03 UT
>>Jim Rosso wrote:
I have found it very interesting that the distribution of House Finches
and Purple Finches is so scattered. I live near Pine Lake which is some
500 feet higher in elevation from Bellevue but I never see either
species up on the plateau. But as soon as I go down the hill I can find
them pretty fast. But the same can be said for Robins. Around my house
they are very intermittent but down the hill pretty easy to find. I
don't really think that the 500 foot elevation is the reason for the
difference but I don't see any other factors.
>>
>>Jim Rosso
>>Issaquah
>>
>= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =

I find this very interesting.

Purple and House Finches as well as Robins are very abundant on Cougar
Mountain - the "high elevation" (500-1600 ft) on the opposite side of
the Issaquah lowlands from the Plateau. I have about a 50/50 mixture of
Purple and House Finches that visit my feeders at an elevation of 1100
ft. I do have at least 3 male House Finches that are of the "Orange"
morph that are regular visitors. In the Winter it is not unusual to get
20 or so Purple Finches at a time in the yard. I also get a lot of
Goldfinches, Pine Siskins,Red Crossbills and Black Headed Grossbeaks and
have seen Redpolls and Evening Grossbeaks in the neighborhood - maybe
Cougar Mtn is just a "Finchy" place. I think it was Richard Rowlett who
suggested that this was likely due to the large areas of alder forest
which produce cones/seeds that these birds are attracted to. Preditors,
competitors, vegetation, food sources, micro-climates and other
ecosystem factors probably all contribute to this "weird" distribution.

Good Birding

Rob Conway
Cougar Mtn, Bellevue, WA

robin_conway at hotmail.com


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