For the last three years, I have had a female Carpodacus finch visit
my feeder in Albion, Whitman Co., WA, every spring for about two weeks. I
still haven't taken a good picture of it but I can describe it by heart. I
was hoping someone out there can help me decide if this is a Purple Finch or
a weird Cassin's Finch.

Size: The same as the surrounding female House Finches.
Back color: Bascically the same as the House Finch.
Head: Boldly marked in grayish-brown. The top of the head is dark brown.
The supercillium (above the eye) is lighter than the top. The auricles
(around the ear) are dark brown. There is a small amount of lighter
feathers all around the auricles including a stripe from the back of the
bill down to the chest. Then there is a darker brown mustache and a lighter
chin. The pattern reminds me of a Song Sparrow except it is in the
gray-brown tones of female Carpodacus finches, not the red-browns of the
Song Sparrows.
Chest and Breast: Boldly streaked. The streaks are dark-gray/brown on a
white background, much more sharply defined than the female House Finch.
Tail: uniformly dark brown; I don't know if it is notched.

The bird looks a lot like the female Purple Finch in Peterson's
Western bird guide but when I read Ken Kaufman's Advanced Birding, I'm not
sure if it is a Cassin's or Purple. Both are rather rare on the Palouse but
Cassin's nests in the higher elevations nearby.
I have seen a lot of Cassin's Finch females and a few Purple Finch
females (in Kansas) but they were always with males so I didn't really look
at them. Now I have a lone female and I can't seem to make up my mind
whether it is Purple or Cassin's

Thanks
Deb

Deb Beutler
Department of Zoology
P.O. Box 644236
Washington State University
Pullman (Whitman Co.), WA 99164-4236
dbeutler at wsunix.wsu.edu