Bird Watching: DAILY PICS. VOL. 31, 0 by NM_Jane

NM_Jane wrote:
This forum is great! I really appreciate all the wonderful tips and advice I've gotten from you all. The more I learn about our local birds, the more questions I seem to come up with. (Hope I'm not making a pest of myself!)

In my area of New Mexico we supposedly have both house finch and cassin's finch. If I understanding correctly, the cassin's finch has a white chest; whereas the house finch has a red chest.

I've stitched together 3 photos of "red birds" that I'd love to get a positive ID for.

Initially I thought that the top two photos were house finch (notice the red chest) and the bottom photo was a cassin's finch (notice the white chest). Now, I'm beginning to wonder about the bird in the top left photo. It is a bit smaller than the other birds. It also has a more rounded body and a slightly shorter tail. This really seems like a different bird to me; but it could be just a fat little juvenile house finch. Any ideas???

This message was edited Nov 15, 2007 12:56 PM