Female Purple Finch

Though lacking the bright raspberry color of the male, the female has some striking markings all the same. She is unmistakable at the feeder.

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Technical Details

Is this a composite: No
Canon 60D, Canon 70-300mm IS USM zoom, f/5.6, 1/1000 sec., ISO 800, Hand Held. Shot in heavy fog this morning. Processed in ACR, Topaz De-noise, and PSE 2020 for exposure, sharpness, color, and NR.

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Interesting, Terry. The browns seem darker there than they are on our local birds which is a reversal of the usual shift in coloration where birds in the Pacific Northwest tend to be darker than elsewhere. The detail looks good, but I do wish she’d faced the other way instead of putting that branch right in front of her face.

They’re fairly dark browns, Dennis. I took this in heavily overcast skies, and even lightened it up a bit. Hopefully, I’ll get more shots with some sun and other poses. I just thought this one showed decent details of the bird.

Good job giving us the details Terry. I would say beak looks a little chunkier than our more local House Finch but I could be seeing things. I like the nice side pose with the bit of look back. All the feather markings can be quite pretty.

Thanks, David. I think you’re absolutely correct they have a chunkier beak than a House Finch. And, they’re a slightly smaller bird overall - a bit larger than a Goldfinch. I’ll post this for comparitive purposes.

@David_Leroy and @Mike_Friel According to Sibley, the top of the beak on the House Finch is curved (convex),whereas the Purple Finch is more triangular. I agree that the Purple’s seems a bit larger and chunkier.

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Hi Terry, nice view of this female. I like the pose the bird is giving us. The head seems pretty sharp but the rest of the bird not so much. I think you could have narrowed the aperture some and decreased shutter speed to bring more of the bird into the depth of field. Nice image overall.

Hi Terry, this is a very pretty little bird! I can see the differences from a House Finch almost better in the female than a male. Nice capture. Do you have one of those branch setups in your yard to get photos of birds?

@Allen_Sparks Hi, Allen. Thanks. Yes, I agree with your assessment. Right now I’m shooting everything wide open to try to eliminate some distracting backgrounds. Our recent horribly cold and snowy weather halted construction of my “bird blind”.

@Vanessa_Hill Thanks, Vanessa. I agree she is easily distinguishable. When she comes to the feeder, I recognize her immediately whereas, with the male, it usually takes a few seconds to make sure it isn’t a House Finch. I am working on a bird blind with feeders and perches to make photographing birds easier. It’s a work-in-progress.

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I would like to do something like that one day! And include a setup for Turkey Vultures too! But I’d have to live way out in the country and have a pickup truck to collect roadkill!

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I just began working on this setup a couple months ago, motivated by @Dennis_Plank , and a couple others, and it has already paid off. I still need to tweak it here and there, but it works very well. Hang in there; I have read numerous times that it takes many years to become a skilled wildlife photographer.

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