Deborah and Tweeters,

Speaking of oddly marked HOUSE FINCHES -- I imagine that most of us by
now have seen the occasional male HOUSE FINCH that was orange or yellow
colored where most are colored red. For the first time ever, this winter
I've started seeing ones which have both red and orange mottled coloring
which is particularly noticable on their breasts.
They are not attractive and, in fact, look a little goofy. Is this
something new, or have others seen it before this?

Dennis K Rockwell
Kennewick, Washington
denniskrockwell at juno.com

"Cynicism is what passes for insight among the mediocre." Joe Klein

On Tue, 19 Jan 1999 07:32:37 -0800 (PST) Deborah Wisti-Peterson
<nyneve at u.washington.edu> writes:
>
>hello tweets.
>
>last week, i noticed an oddly-marked bird hanging out with a group
>of talkative house finches. this bird had white cheeks and a white
>spot at the base of its upper mandible. the markings were so odd
>that i stopped dead in my tracks and just stared at it, not sure
>of its identity. the bird became nervous and popped up to a higher
>branch, where it apparently felt safer. at that point, it began
>to make its cheery call notes, and i realized it was a house finch.
>i then noticed that there were house finches all around it in the
>surrounding branches, and they were of both genders and in various
>stages of brilliant red coloring.
>
>after seeing this bird, i have begun to wonder (yet again) why birders
>refer to birds with oddly-placed patches of white (or yellow) as
>"partial albinos" instead of "pied mutations," as do the
>aviculturists.
>
> Deborah Wisti-Peterson email:nyneve at u.washington.edu
>Department of Zoology, University of Washington, Seattle, Wash, USA
> Visit me on the web: http://weber.u.washington.edu/~nyneve/
><><><>Graduate School: it's not just a job, it's an indenture!<><><>
>
>

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