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Robin Bartlett-Asnicar
Longmont, CO, United States
This bird has been visiting my feeders for several days now. It feeds along with house finches and house sparrows, but doesn’t seem to interact with them. For example, if the flock flies away because something startled it, this one doesn’t follow their lead. It has been eating suet, mixed seed an thistle. It always comes here at dusk. I sent these pics to Anne Marie Johnson to ask if it was possible for it to be a Black-Faced Grassquit, as that’s the only bird I’ve been able to find that resembles it. Her response was “It looks to me like a melanistic female House Finch.” Thoughts? Whatever it is, I’ve never seen one before in many years of bird watching.
Other
I had two of these a couple of years ago at my feeder in winter. They stayed about a week or so. I to wondered if they were Grassquits but was told not likely. I eventually found photos that looked like them and they were melanistic house finches I’m certain.
One resembling your description just visited my feeder, but I was unable to get a pic. It looked just like an all black finch!
I came here because I had a pair of these at my feeders today! Hmm.
I just spotted a similar bird at my feeder today in upstate NY. It looks like an entirely black finch- short tail (shorter than yours and forked), short black beak, black legs, black eye. I was too far away to get a good photo, darn.
We just had one of these at our backyard feeder here in southwest Ohio. Came and went with a flock of House Finches. It was all black with a dusky greyish underbelly and faint markings of a typical House Finch (just all in hues of black). It was a first for us!
I just had about 10 of these on my suet pellet feeder. They definitely look like jet black house finches. Feather, eyes, legs, beak are all black. We have a lot of house and gold finches this year in Northeast Connecticut.
One has showed up at my feeder two weekends in a row in eastern North Carolina
Just had a single land on my feeder here in Central Texas. Pure, jet black. Beautiful.
I’ve had one at my feeder two weeks in a row in Picture Rocks Arizona
I had one on my bag finch feeder this morning in western Iowa.
I had one on my bag finch feeder this morning in Western Iowa.
I agree that it is a melanistic House Finch.
Spotted one last year in Spring, then again in June this year, in Phoenix. Thanks for the info feederwatchers! Identifying this weird bird was beyond the capabilities of the any of the searchable databases I tried online. Yeah humans!
Hi, not a bird watcher persa, but saw one of these black finch’s with a common green? Type finch at Alton Downs outside rockhampton, Queensland, Australia Looked up on your site, enjoyed
I had one the other day eating spilled Niger seed..never seen one before. North of Toronto!
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