Hi, Bob and all:

We did have a thread going a couple of years ago on house finch coloration.
Back in the olden days when I was doing bird tours for the LA zoo the head
of the department said house finches were especially sensitive to chromatic
mutation. When I lived in S. Calif. I had house finches in purpley-red, the
"ordinary" red that we mostly see here, fire-engine red, golden-orange like
an oriole, and bright yellow...all in the same location (at my feeders in
Topanga Canyon in the Santa Monica mountains) so food didn't seem to be the
determining factor. Since I've been up here in eastern Washington I mostly
get the "ordinary" red but with a few apricot/peach color that I've not seen
anywhere else. I'm looking forward to other postings on this.

Regards, Joanne
Reardan (Spokane) WA
mailto: jhpowell at iea.com
-----Original Message-----
From: Robert Sundstrom <ixoreus at home.com>
To: smuttart at qwest.net <smuttart at qwest.net>; tweeters
<tweeters at u.washington.edu>
Date: Sunday, February 04, 2001 5:50 PM
Subject: Re: House Finches


>Hi Susan/Tweeters,
>
>Male House Finches with yellow coloration where males typically show red to
>red-orange are a very small but regular fraction of the population. I also
>have one coming to my feeder this winter, and they turn up in many large
>flocks of House Finches. I seem to have read and already forgotten that
>someone has attempted to link this to nutrition or something to do with
>physiology. No doubt other tweets will pick up this thread with a more
>thorough dissertation.
>
>Regards, Bob Sundstrom
>
>ixoreus at home.com
>
>----- Original Message -----
>From: "Susan in WA" <smuttart at qwest.net>
>To: "Tweeters" <tweeters at u.washington.edu>
>Sent: Sunday, February 04, 2001 12:46 PM
>Subject: House Finches
>
>
>> I subscribe to this list because I feed the birds, I like reading
>> about other people's bird experiences, and I have a desire to learn.
>> I am strictly a novice birder. I don't belong to any bird group
>> (unless you count Tweeters as a kind of 'group'), I don't go out in
>> the field on any kind of regular basis, and most of my identifications
>> come from watching the birds in my backyard. So, if the following
>> question sounds a little silly to some of you more experienced
>> birders, I hope you will understand from whence I come.
>>
>> How common is the yellow house finch in Washington?
>>
>> --
>> Susan in WA
>> Sumner, Washington
>> email: smuttart at qwest.net
>>
>>
>