Unlimited edition. 18 x 24 inch, museum-quality poster on matte paper.

I sometimes have the pleasure of watching these fine birds forage in the valley and coast live oak trees of our front yard. Most of my oak visitors are female finches, but males sometimes show up, their radiant raspberry plumage spotlighted by the shafts of sunlight filtering through the oak canopy.

Although they’re called purple finches, their “purple” is really a wet wash of lilac and rose; renowned birder and artist Roger Tory Peterson aptly described them as “a sparrow dipped in raspberry juice.” I associate them with wine, and not just because of their color; their song is an exuberant, slurred warble. My studio window is usually open, and I enjoy listening to the tipsy-sounding berry birds. This color column is based more on the Eastern race of purple finch, H. p. purpureus. The western race (H. p. californicus), the one that visits my oaks, is generally darker, with slightly duller reds and a little more brown, a day-old old wine stain rather than a fresh one.

Male purple finches are easily confused with their close relative, the house finch (Haemorhous mexicanus), but the purple finch has more of its body – head, back, breast, and belly – showing the rosy reds, whereas the male house finch’s punchy reds and reddish-oranges are typically confined to his head, nape, and breast. Both species dine on seeds, flowers, nectar, and fruit, and they’ll occasionally grab insects. During the winter months, purple finches will forage in mixed-species flocks, often showing up with pine siskins (Spinus pinus) – this proved true in my yard. Once breeding season arrives, however, the paired males and females are more solitary.

Although the species population is stable throughout its range, I noted an interesting observation on the Cornell Laboratory Of Ornithology purple finch entry: “Overall, the Purple Finch is an understudied species because it is neither sufficiently abundant to make study easy nor so rare that study has been required to develop an effective conservation strategy.” The purple finch is a betwixt and between bird, it seems.

Note: These archival poster prints feature rich, appealing colors. I encourage customers to take care in handling them until they are framed/protected for display; the darker colors on the matte paper can be scratched. They ship rolled, so customers need to flatten them before framing (or have their framer do so).

Charitable Sales Model: Whenever one of these poster prints is purchased, a charitable contribution equal to 10% of the print’s cost (or $3.60) is made to a nonprofit working to tackle environmental or social challenges. Read more about my charitable sales model here.