House Finch, orange male, backlit
Haemorhous mexicanus
House Finch · San Diego Botanic Garden · 7 March 2026
A male House Finch singing from the top of a bush in a San Diego garden, in the part of the country the species comes from - not the Fox Sparrow it was first written up as. A Fox Sparrow is a bulky, spotted bird that keeps to the ground under cover; this one is small, streaked, and up in the open in full sun, which is exactly where a House Finch sings from.
The colour is the interesting part. Most males are red; this one is orange, and the difference is diet rather than genes. The red comes from pigments in the food the bird eats while it grows its new feathers, and a male on the wrong plants comes out orange or even yellow. The females, which choose, prefer the reddest males they can find.
Birds, insects, plants and other wildlife, mostly from Brooklyn, with some from further afield.
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