Mr. House Finch

Introduced from the western into the northeastern U.S. back around 1940, the house finch thrives at our feeder. A bit bigger than the gold finch, he has no problem appropriating a feeder peg and eating while he perches. He appears to hold a seed or sunflower heart in his stout beak and rasp it with his tongue or work it with the inside of his beak. His mate has no red color, but commonly feeds on an adjacent peg.
He is easily distinguished from his slightly bigger cousin the purple finch, whose purple-blushed feathers and absence of chest stripes set him apart.