finches galore

In answer to a couple of questions posed yesterday, first off regarding the mountain chickadee. Stokes field guide states the Mountain chickadee eyebrow is black feathers with white tips which wear off in summer due to rubbing entering and leaving the nest hole, so that would explain the lack of as that photo was taken in august. John if you clik the image larger you can see a ghost of an eyebrow.

And as for finches, this is the delightful blaze of color that frequents the feeder each day for black-oil sunflower seeds; with this cold snap and abundance of snow we are recieving a trip to the Wildbird General Store is imminent to keep our feathered guests stocked in black oil seed. I would hate to run out when they most need it.

 This was too cute, she had reached up for a berry whereupon dislodging a snow shower.

Tis lady finch is quite soft gray overall.

 I notice some birds are a very striking deep red color with very defined light and dark on the wings, others are softer shades of red or orange, though the one I call Dale who was bright orange has not been around since a few days before christmas, at least I haven't seen him.

Some of the females are a brownish color and some lean towards gray, a lot of variation.

And then there is this wee fella, I am not sure if he is a stunted finch or some poor bird that did not fly south. It's smaller than the finches and extremely timid which has made it difficult getting a shot off as it flys to a further tree when it senses me at the window. Initially it arrived with a small crew of siskins when we had our first cold snap a few weeks back. Though larger than the siskins it seemed to travel and feed with them on the lower catch basin; now I notice it go to the feeder once in a while and seems to be sticking around. I keep attempting to capture it on the feeder with a finch to be able to see the size difference clearly, but so far I've been eluded.

 This is Dale.

And here is Dale dining with his buddies, isn't he sweet

Have a wonderful day, Hugs to all.