** Deb Buetler asked -

<snip>
> 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: Basically 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.

Above description could be of either a female Cassin's or a female Purple finch,
although I would favor Purple given the browish tones mentioned. Female Cassin's
often tend to be of a colder gray tone than Purple. A good but not 100% infallible
field mark on a silent bird is the presence (Cassin's) or lack (Purple) of streaking
on the undertail coverts. However, the absolutely best ID characters for
distinguishing amongst the Carpodacus finches are the flight calls. The three-parted
"cheedliup" of the Cassin's is very different from the dry "pit" of the Purple (and
also different from the House Finch's House Sparrow-like calls). Note that the
full courtship songs of the males, although distinguishabel with practice, are easier
to confuse than the call notes.

- Jack


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Jack Bowling
Prince George, BC
jbowling at direct.ca