House Finch, Adult male: Bright orangish red on forehead, throat, and breast Brown back and wings Thick brown streaking on flanks Thick grayish bill.

The House Finch was originally a bird of the western United States and Mexico.

In 1940 a small number of finches were turned loose on Long Island, New York, after failed attempts to sell them as cage birds (“Hollywood finches”).

They quickly started breeding and spread across almost all of the eastern United States and southern Canada within the next 50 years.

The total House Finch population across North America is staggering.
Scientists estimate between 267 million and 1.4 billion individuals.
House Finches were introduced to Oahu from San Francisco sometime before 1870.
They had become abundant on all the major Hawaiian Islands by 1901.


House Finch, Adult female: Brown and streaked overall Plain face Thick grayish bill.

The red of a male House Finch comes from pigments contained in its food during molt (birds can’t make bright red or yellow colors directly).

So the more pigment in the food, the redder the male. This is why people sometimes see orange or yellowish male House Finches.

Females prefer to mate with the reddest male they can find, perhaps raising the chances they get a capable mate who can do his part in feeding the nestlings.

Since January 1994, House Finches have been detected with a disease called mycoplasmal conjunctivitis that causes respiratory problems and red, swollen eyes. It can kill House Finches directly or make them easy prey. House Finch conjunctivitis was first observed at feeders in the Washington, D.C., area. It’s not harmful to humans, but it has spread rapidly through the eastern House Finch population and into the West. 

House Finches feed their nestlings exclusively plant foods, a fairly rare occurrence in the bird world. Many birds that are vegetarians as adults still find animal foods to keep their fast-growing young supplied with protein.
The oldest known House Finch was 11 years, 7 months old.

Habitat
House Finches are familiar birds of human-created habitats including buildings, lawns, small conifers, and urban centers. In rurual areas, you can also find House Finches around barns and stables.

In their native range in the West, House Finches live in natural habitats including dry desert, desert grassland, chaparral, oak savannah, streamsides, and open coniferous forests at elevations below 6,000 feet.

Food
House Finches eat almost exclusively plant materials, including seeds, buds and fruits. Wild foods include wild mustard seeds, knotweed, thistle, mulberry, poison oak, cactus, and many other species. In orchards, House Finches eat cherries, apricots, peaches, pears, plums, strawberries, blackberries, and figs. At feeders they eat black oil sunflower over the larger, striped sunflower seeds, millet, and milo.

Nest Placement
House Finches nest in a variety of deciduous and coniferous trees as well as on cactus and rock ledges. They also nest in or on buildings, using sites like vents, ledges, street lamps, ivy, and hanging planters. Occasionally House Finches use the abandoned nests of other birds.House Finches often nest near homes and buildings,
sometimes even on Christmas wreaths left hanging after the holidays, (Now, you know what happened at our door !!)
or on nesting platforms built for them.

Nesting Habits
Although bird watchers may see the male with nesting material, the female builds the actual nest.
The nest is cup shaped and made of twigs, grasses, and leaves. These finches will nest in a variety of artificial and natural cavites such as old woodpecker holes, hanging plants, and occasionally birdhouses. The nest is located 5 to 10 feet above ground.

The female lays 2 to 6 bluish with fine speckling eggs. Incubation is done by the female for 12 to 14 days and the young will leave the nest in about 11 to 19 days after hatching.

During the incubation time and for about five days after the young have hatched, the male, will feed the female on the nest. He does this by regurgitating seed into the females mouth. The female regurgitates the food to the nestlings.

After the young have fledged, the parents continue to feed the young. The female may find a new mate and raise another brood while the male continues to feed the young.

House finches have been known to raise more than two broods in a season.

Breeding
During courtship, the male will touch bills with the female. He may then present the female with choice bits of food, and if she mimics the behavior of a hungry chick, he may actually feed her. The male also feeds the female during the breeding and incubation of both eggs and young, and the male is the primary feeder of the fledgelings (who can be differentiated from the females by the pin feathers remaining on their heads).

The female lays clutches of eggs from February through August, two or more broods per year with 2 to 6 eggs per brood, most commonly 4 or 5. The egg laying usually takes place in the morning, at the rate of one egg per day. The eggs are a pale bluish green with few black spots and a smooth, somewhat glossy surface.

In response to mite infestation, the mother finch may lay one gender of egg first, which increases the chances of the young finches' survival. The female incubates the eggs for 12 to 14 days.

Shortly after hatching, she removes the empty eggshells from the nest. The hatchlings are pink with closed eyes and tufts of fluffy down. The female always feeds the young, and the male usually joins in.
The young are silent for the first seven or eight days, and subsequently start peeping during feedings. Initially, the mother carries fecal sacs out of the nest, but when the young become older, she no longer carries them all away, allowing droppings to accumulate around the edge of the nest.

Before flying, the young often climb into adjacent plants, and usually fledge at about 11 to 19 days after hatching. Dandelion seeds are among the preferred seeds fed to the young. House Finches are aggressive enough to drive other birds away from places such as feeders.

Data from the Internet