All birds Finches, Euphonias, and Allies
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House Finch
Haemorhous mexicanus
Here all year.
Recorded by nick10978. CC BY-NC, via iNaturalist, trimmed and volume evened out.
Look for
- Males are red on the face and chest, with a brown cap. A few males are orange or yellow instead.
- A streaky brown back, and brown streaks down the pale sides.
- Females are plain brown with blurry streaks all over the front. Their faces have no marks.
A little about it
You can see house finches here all year. They're new to Oklahoma, though. They've lived in most of the state only since the mid-1980s.
Almost everything they eat comes from plants, mostly weed seeds, buds, and berries. At feeders they go for black-oil sunflower seeds. Some even sip sugar water from hummingbird feeders.
House finches usually eat in small flocks. At a hanging feeder, one will sit and eat until it's full or another bird pushes it off.
A house finch nest might even be in a hanging flower pot. The female lays 4 or 5 pale blue eggs with dark dots. A pair can raise up to 3 sets of babies in a year.
Fun fact
Pet shops in New York once sold house finches against the law. In 1940, they let the birds go so they wouldn't get caught. Those finches spread west, and 50 years later they met the house finches of the West on the Great Plains.
When it's here
- January: here
- February: here
- March: here
- April: here
- May: here
- June: here
- July: here
- August: here
- September: here
- October: here
- November: here
- December: here
Taller bars mean more sightings. Most often seen in June.
How big
5 to 6 inches. About the size of a sparrow.
Where to look
Towns, yards, and farms, near houses, lawns, and trees. House finches love hanging feeders.
People have spotted it at Lake Thunderbird State Park, Mitch Park, Martin Park Nature Center.
Could it be something else?
House Sparrow
A female House Sparrow has a plain gray chest with no streaks and a pale stripe over her eye. A female House Finch has blurry streaks all down her front. A male House Sparrow has a black bib and a gray cap.
Purple Finch
The male's red spreads past his head onto his wings and sides. The female has a white stripe over her eye and a white "mustache."
More photos
Where these facts come from
- Oklahoma Department of Wildlife Conservation field guide
- Audubon Guide to North American Birds
- When it's here: Sightings shared on iNaturalist in the 8 counties, all years.