Purple Finch (Carpodacus purpureus), Rotary Park, Lake Havasu City, Mohave County

This Purple Finch was found and photographed by David Vander Pluym on 25 January 2015

Purple Finch is a casual transient and winter visitor with only five records in the past ten years, since being reinstated on the review list. This is a flight year for Purple Finch in the California deserts and there are two prior pending reports from this fall/winter

This finch is readily told from a House Finch by the strong face pattern. The best characters to separate this bird from a female Cassin's Finch are the overall greenish color, rounded culmen, short primary projection and blurry breast streaking. Also note the pale arc under the eye and lack of an eyering. The olive tones to the upperparts including wing bars, and the long blurry flank streaking identify this as the western subspecies californicus.

25 January 2015, photo by David Vander Pluym

All photos are copyrighted© by photographer