Singin’ the Browns

DeBoville Slough, in Coquitlam, BC, seems to have an incredible density of Purple Finches. Everywhere we walked this morning along the rainy dike we heard their vague, sweet songs, and–uncharacteristically–they were easy to see as they sang high and low in the trees and bushes, a helpful thing for those of us unfamiliar with these blurry californicus birds, so different from the eastern Purples I grew up with.

Whichever race you’re dealing with, Purple Finches are “two-year passerines,” meaning that the males take a full year to attain their red plumage. This morning I was fascinated to watch brown birds–first-cycle males–singing right along with their purplish seniors, and astonished to see one of the kids attract a female, who flew in close, cocked her tail, and vibrated her wings in the classic solicitation pose. Consummation remained merely devoutly wished, and they flew off, together, presumably in search of some privacy.