This is a bird note.

The sweet jumbled song of a house.

The sweet jumbled song of a house finch is a familiar sound across much of the country.

House finches eat many kinds of seeds and fruits.

They readily flock to backyard feeders and their short-

thick bills are perfectly designed for hauling sunflower seeds at a brisk pace.

Female House Finches are brown and heavily streaked overall, while many brisk But a careful look at male house finches at the feeder shows that while most males show red feathering, some are decidedly more orange and some even yellow.

It turns out that house finches acquire their coloration

from pigments in the plant foods they eat. This is true for most birds with red,

orange, or yellow pigmented feathers.

These tones each derived from a different organic pigment, known as keratinoids.

So that yellow male house finch standing out from all the red ones?

Well, his attire reflects something he ate, or didn't eat. You can listen again to this episode of Bird Note or any other, even subscribe to the

podcast. Begin at our website birdnote.org. I'm Mary McCann. You're going to be.