A hit with the ladies

Although this is one of our most common backyard birds in the eastern (and western) United States, I felt that this beautiful fellow deserved to be seen. This is a male House Finch (Haemorhous mexicanus). Tjey were originally found in only the western US until 1940 when someone turned loose a number of them on Long Island, NY. Since then, they've established a huge population throughout the eastern and southern US. There is only a small region in the very center of the country where house finches aren't commonly found.

Researches have found that female house finches (who are a plain brown and white bird) strongly prefer the redder males. If that is true, this fine fellow is sure to be a big hit with the lady finches come spring when some lucky gal will win his heart for the summer.

I posted another house finch, a lady Cardinal and Conehead the Titmouse HERE on Flickr - first three shots.

We warmed up to a "balmy "43 F today and temps tonight will drop into the low 20's. Tomorrow's high is forecast to be a frigid 27 F - brrrrrr. In spite of the brisk temps, I worked outside for a couple of hours this morning clearing some fallen branches and stacking brush at the edge of the woods near our deck. The little birds love brush piles and it provides protection from predators as well as foul weather.

I had another sale from my website yesterday - someone purchased greeting cards. Very cool! By the way, I learned that the company that I use for the website and all fulfillment will accept artists from anywhere, so if you're in country outside of the US you can still use them to sell your work. If you are interested, the main website is FineArtAmerica.com. There is an annual fee if you want to sell your work and have a website like mine, shown here. The fee is US $30 which I think is quite reasonable. Just wanted to share in case any of you are interested.

Happy Saturday, people!

Cheers.
Debbi