The purple finch: less common than before

A male purple finch, in the words of naturalist Roger Tory Peterson, is a “sparrow dipped in raspberry juice.” While found in Kentucky, purple finches have become less common over the past decades as the population of house finches (next week’s feature) has grown.

The National Audubon Society’s Christmas Bird Count—a community bird project occurring annually between December 14 and January 5—tallied an average of 20 to 40 purple finches in a 24-hour period in Kentucky between the mid-1960s and mid-1980s. The current average purple finch count is about five. While purple finches may come to birdfeeders for sunflower seeds, white millet, or thistle seeds, they are now more commonly found in the woods.