Recognition

These birds are about 6in. in length. The male has some pink on the head and breast. The female is a bit like a sparrow with a brown and cream streaked breast. The female has quite a predominant pale eye stripe.

Like all finches, these birds have a conical shaped beak.

Where seen

On bird feeders which have mixed seed.

Jimmy’s notes

These are not as common as house finches in our part of Florida and are seen mixed in with a flock of house finches. If you do see them the weather up north must be exceptionally cold as they normally are only found in northern Florida during the winter.

The famous American naturalist Roger Tory Petersen aptly described this bird as "a sparrow dipped in raspberry juice”.