If you hang a bird feeder outside your home, there’s a good chance that your first visitor will be some kind of finch. We have five kinds of finches in Marin: the reddish house finch and purple finch, ...

Prior to the 1900s, house finches couldn’t be found in this area. Now the problem isn’t seeing them here — it’s identifying them. This is the time of year when many people are focused on bird feeding.

The wild bird feeder even comes prefilled with seed that finches love.

House finches are some of the most numerous birds at my feeder right now, always there in cheery little groups of bright red males and subtly brown-streaked females. They are fun to take photos of ...

Our last column focused on Juncos. This week, we will focus in a lesser manner on two other feeder birds, the black-capped chickadee and the more recent addition, the house finch. Let us begin with ...

House finches are the perfect urban bird. They would willingly trade an empty lot filled with grasses and bushes and trees for a nice new house with a bird feeder. They are fond (understatement) of ...

DEAR JOAN: Last weekend I spotted a white bird at our backyard bird feeder. All of the other birds at the feeder at the time were house finches. Other than color, the white bird looked the same as the ...

When I ask talk to new backyard birders, almost all of them say they want to attract goldfinches. Picking the correct bird feeder and birdseed can determine whether you’ll be seeing finches or not.

A: No one knows for sure what causes baldness in birds. And often in the literature that I read, the condition has not been well studied. Fortunately, in most cases new head feathers grow within a few ...

House finches are some of the most numerous birds at my feeder right now, always there in cheery little groups of bright red males and subtly brown-streaked females. They are fun to take photos of ...