A Blue Morning Housefinch
by Debbie Portwood
Title
A Blue Morning Housefinch
Artist
Debbie Portwood
Medium
Photograph - Phototography
Description
Close view of a beautiful male Housefinch. Captured on a sunny but cold morning. The blue backbround has been given a bit of texture and a decoritive blue frame of the same texture has been added for a wonderful artistic look, great for your wall or blank greeting card, ready for your personal greeting....................(Wikipedia - This is a moderately-sized finch. Adult birds are 12.5 to 15 cm (4.9 to 5.9 in) and span 20 to 25 cm (7.9 to 9.8 in). Body mass can vary from 16 to 27 g (0.56 to 0.95 oz), with an average weight of 21 g (0.74 oz). Among standard measurements, the wing chord is 7 to 8.4 cm (2.8 to 3.3 in), the tail is 5.7 to 6.5 cm (2.2 to 2.6 in), the culmen is 0.9 to 1.1 cm (0.35 to 0.43 in) and the tarsus is 1.6 to 1.8 cm (0.63 to 0.71 in). Adults have a long, square-tipped brown tail and are a brown or dull-brown color across the back with some shading into deep gray on the wing feathers. Breast and belly feathers may be streaked; the flanks usually are. In most cases, adult males' heads, necks and shoulders are reddish. This color sometimes extends to the belly and down the back, between the wings. Male coloration varies in intensity with the seasons and is derived from the berries and fruits in its diet. As a result, the colors range from pale straw-yellow through bright orange (both rare) to deep, intense red. Adult females have brown upperparts and streaked underparts. Their song is a rapid, cheery warble or a variety of chirps...........Range and habitat -These birds are mainly permanent residents throughout their range; some northern and eastern birds migrate south. Their breeding habitat is urban and suburban areas in eastern North America as well as various semi-open areas in the west from southern Canada to northern Florida and the Mexican state of Oaxaca; the population in central Chiapas may be descended from escaped cagebirds. Originally only a resident of Mexico and the southwestern United States, they were introduced to eastern North America in the 1940s. The birds were sold illegally in New York City as "Hollywood Finches", a marketing artifice. To avoid prosecution under the Migratory Bird Treaty Act of 1918, vendors and owners released the birds. They have become naturalized; in largely unforested land across the Eastern U.S., they have displaced the native Purple Finch and even the non-native House Sparrow. In 1870, or before, they were introduced into Hawaii and are known abundant on all its islands.
There are estimated to be anywhere from 267 million to 1.7 billion individuals across North America. )
Uploaded
December 17th, 2012
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Comments (21)
Kym Backland
Debbie, ahhhhh I do love a good looking House Finch! He is so red and pink, and cute! Nice job! Nice blue background! I gave it a favorite check!
Karen Slagle
This pretty finch would be very proud of his portrait, Debbie. Love the blue bg and frame plus the added texture. f/v
Barbara Jewell
My pick for my "favorite image for today" Dec. 21, on Female Artists group. Great photo...so appealing and perfect for the season! v/f
Madalena Lobao-Tello
CONGRATULATIONS!! Featured on Female Artists!! Great artwork. Love the colours, textures and composition!!!!!
Debbie Portwood replied:
Thank you so much for your very kind comments and support as well as the feature in Female Artists, Madalena!!! :D
Lenore Senior
Wow! This is beautiful! I love it. Thanks for re-introducing me to some of my works I'd forgotten about! This gets a v/f