

Female purple finches have dark cheek patches and a white streak over their eyes - something that you aren’t going to find in female house finches. The females differ too, even though to an untrained eye, they can look very similar. Even though they have a similar size and weight, the male house finch has a red to orange tint on its head, whereas the male purple finch has a reddish-purple color on most of its body. The main difference between a house finch and purple finch is their coloring. When the house sparrow is added to the mix, the purple finch population declines even more. Moreover, the purple finch has gradually become less common in the Eastern parts of the continent as the house finch outcompetes it. While there are a wide variety of finch types that exist in the world, these two are among the most common ones in the US and Canada. What are the differences between a purple finch vs house finch? Telling one from the other is easy and in today’s article, we invite you on a fun journey packed with house and purple finch facts.īoth purple and house finches can be found across North America, and both prefer habitats that are coniferous. But making the difference between them can sometimes be tricky, especially since house finches don’t live in houses and purple finches aren’t even purple. House finches and purple finches have become a favorite of birders and people who have bird feeders installed in their backyard.
