Purple Finches Kids T-Shirt

Upon first learning about the Purple Finch (Haemorphous purpureus) many people say something like, “But it isn’t purple!” The adult male is more a rosy-pink than purple. Originally the species, in the finch family, Fringillidae, was placed in the genus “Carpodacus” which includes several very similarly coloured birds in Eurasia collectively called the rosefinches. With modern methods of examining relationships scientists determined that the three “rosefinch-like” species found here in the western hemisphere are not particularly closely related to the Old World birds and placed them in their own genus, Haemorphous. The other two are the House Finch (H. mexicanus) and the Cassin’s Finch (H. cassinii). While it is migratory, in the Great Lakes region where I live, and much of the New England area, one can find Purple Finches at any time of the year, and it is the State Bird of New Hampshire. In much of the eastern U.S. they are most often seen in as a wintering m...