Scientific Name: Carpodacus mexicanus
Residency: Year-round throughout Arizona.
Diet: Feeds upon seeds and buds of plants; on occasion it eats insects as well. It forages in flocks on the ground and within trees.
Predators: Domestic cats and Cooper?s and Sharp-shinned hawks have been observed to take House Finch at feeding stations.
Nesting: Constructs a cup-shaped nest made of grasses, hair, cotton and other plant fibers. Their nests are very compact, and are placed in saguaro, buckhorn cholla, other cacti, shrubs and trees. The female lays 2-6 pale-blue eggs with black spotting.
Nesting Records: Scottsdale Community College, Brown's Ranch, and Coon Bluff.
Notes: Though native to the southwestern United States, the House Finch was introduced to the northeastern United States in the 1940's. A conjunctivitis virus that was first recorded in 1996, and that kills or blinds most infected birds, has been afflicting this bird, mostly among House Finches of the eastern U.S., though presence of the disease has been recorded in Finches as far west as Texas. Because the House Finch seems to be the primary host of this disease, it is thought that the probable decrease in genetic resistance (due to the initial small population introduced and released in the eastern U.S.) is responsible for this species' susceptibility to the virus. Bird feeders placed too closely together, or with feeding mechanisms that enable large numbers of birds to feed at once, may be responsible in promoting the continued transmission of this virus.

Photo: Photo at right was taken at Scottsdale Community College on May 23, 2006. For more photos, click on camera icon.

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