Purple finch

But what are you going to do? What are you going to do? Yeah.

Did you have Purple Finch on there? Have you seen a Purple Finch?

I have now.

I had not before.

Very similar call to Oh Canada, Canada, Canada, white throated sparrow, which I often call mistakenly the white crown sparrow.

So nice to know that they're at least pretty close.

Um, aforementioned purple Finch did see and hear a couple of those.

I think the best one I heard and saw was the common Nighthawk.

A song that can make even the coldest winter days feel like summer.

Next on our list is the purple finch.

This is the species in Iowa that you can most easily confuse with the house finch.

Similar to the house finch, the purple finch has a reddish crown, throat, and breast, but their red is not as bright and gives off subtle hints of purple.

This is not the purple of my beloved K-State Wildcats, but a purple as described by early ornithologists.

It actually seems to lean more towards pink, in my opinion.

They have a streaked white breast as well, but their streaking is thicker and heavier than the house finch.

I tend to view this species as slightly larger than the house finch as well, but my field guide tells me that they are both about the same size.