Yep, it’s that time of year again.

This baby house finch, the first I’ve seen this season, belongs to the male with brown patches on his head and his mate. I think I’ve heard it on the balcony before, but today I’m definitely looking at it. It still has those feathers sticking out of the sides of its head like horns. It’s pretty big already–almost as big as the male. It’s also quite noisy.

The charm just lined up on the balcony railing like a family portrait: cock on the left, chick in the middle, and hen on the right, all facing the sky to the west.

It’s really cute. It has two tufts of downey feathers like horns on its head.

A male finch of the species that nested on some of the balconies around the building housing my office last spring was just on the railing of my balcony singing and looking around. He watched me through the glass or looked at his reflection for a moment, then flew away. I think a female companion blurred by, too. I thought I heard finches singing yesterday, but decided I was mistaken and it must have been some starlings. It seems like it’s too early in the season for the finches to return.

It’s either a purple or a house finch. I always get them confused. A search for images and information on the Web didn’t help. The birds seem to be about 5-7 inches from beak to tail with lots of light and dark brown coloring. The male has dull red feathers on his head and chest mingling with the brown feathers.

Note to self: Self, bring bird seed tomorrow.

Isn’t it cute and noisy?

(I just had to share that with someone.)

Back in May, a pair of house finches began building a nest on my balcony at work. After a few days of difficult work, they left. A pair came by today to get some nesting materials and some bird seed. Since they seemed to know that nesting supplies and food were available here, I wonder if they are the same pair. Much to my sadness, they didn’t try to nest here again.

I’m trying hard to keep this blog related more to my profession than to just have a personal blog. Some of you my think this is a stretch, but I think it’s pretty legitimate.

I love birds. One of the things I have been bemoaning since moving to this area is that there seems to be a distinct lack of a variety of birds. All I see at my birdfeeder regularly are pigeons, sparrows, starlings, and squirrels. (I don’t intentionally feed the pigeons and squirrels.)

Last week, I noticed some finches, which I think are house finches, scoping out my balcony at work. Today, they are trying to build a nest in a light cover. (If I didn’t scare them off by putting out some nesting materials for them when they had left. They returned before I could get off the balcony and saw me. They checked their nest and what I had changed on the balcony, then flew away again. I hope they return.)

Is there any problem with me feeding them at work? I’ve noticed birdfeeders elsewhere on campus, so I wouldn’t be the only one doing it. Does anyone else feed birds at work?

Does anyone know anything about finches?