Many thanks to Schmidt’s Garden Center for granting me permission to work from their photographs! This little seed-cruncher was featured in their most recent online newsletter, and I fell in love with the patterns in his feathers. Their newsletter always has bright photos and interesting discussion, a pleasant break from a world full of less uplifting news.
I’ve always wondered about who decided to call this bird a Purple Finch. In my opinion, it’s not purple at all. It’s pink. There might be a few purple shadows, but this guy is definitely pink – and yes, I did get carried away just a little with the color intensity, but I’m not striving for reality, just that zing I always get when a flash of color flies past. The Cornell Lab of Ornithology web site says, “The Purple Finch is the bird that Roger Tory Peterson famously described as a “sparrow dipped in raspberry juice.” ” Right on!