House finches spread like wildfire

That reddish finch at your feeders is an amazing bird, capable of great feats of resilience in the face of some very hard times. Consider its recent history: Its ancestors were netted for years along the West Coast and sold, illegally, as caged birds, valued for their year-round singing. Transported, again illegally, to the East by pet dealers, some dozens were released around New York in the 1940s to avoid federal investigators.

Although thousands of miles from familiar habitat and facing cold winters, the birds did just fine. They not only survived, but thrived and soon had spread from the East Coast all the way to the Mississippi River, with a population in the millions.

They came to our state late in the game, but were firmly established by the 1990s. What had been a Western bird now owned the East, as well. At its peak, in the mid-1990s, the house finch population was estimated as being in the hundreds of millions.

The Cornell Lab of Ornithology calls the spread of the house finch "one of the most notable ornithological events of the 20th century in North America." No other bird has colonized such a wide area in so short a time in such huge numbers. These are social birds that congregate in large flocks, doubtless a factor in their survival.

Like all birds whose populations undergo major increases, this is a very adaptable species. House finches prefer to live near humans in parks, on farms, and in urban and suburban areas. They're big fans of bird feeders, especially those filled with black oil sunflower or safflower seeds.

Not aliens

Unlike introduced species such as the starling and house sparrow, the house finch is not an alien -- it's an out of place bird. Its recent history makes for an amazing saga and new chapters are still being written.

Festive nests

Many people first encounter these handsome birds when they discover a house finch nest in a holiday wreath still hanging on a door in the spring, or find them nesting within a hanging basket. House finches are famous for raising their young in such places. They nest two or three times a season in our region, and turn out a large number of offspring.

Many are captivated by their exuberant, tumbling song, especially pleasing in the silence of late winter. It was the house finch's song that made the bird so desirable to the caged bird trade, after all.

Has such a flood of birds pushed out any of our longtime residents? Since house finches and house sparrows share similar habitats and food, these birds do compete. Of more concern would be their potential effect on goldfinches, and this is being watched. In the mid-1990s, many of us bought "house finch-proof" feeders that required birds to feed upside down, a trick goldfinches accomplish easily but the house finch hasn't learned. Such feeders no longer seem necessary, with the house finch population stabilizing.

The "Hollywood finch" has had its ups and downs over the past 70 years on our side of the continent. But they're still one of the more abundant birds at feeders from coast to coast. Amazing, considering that until the 1980s, no one in our area had ever seen a house finch in the wild.

If you see a finch with crusty eyes:

House finch conjunctivitis is bad news for the birds, but now there's a piece of good news: There is a new treatment that essentially cures the ailment. If you see a house finch (or goldfinch) with swollen, crusty eyes at your feeder, and/or a finch that seems lethargic, try to catch it by slowly approaching from its blind side.

The Wildlife Rehabilitation Center in Roseville (www.wrcmn.org) will admit such finches and treats each one with antibiotics for a number of weeks, ending the bird's status as a disease carrier.

Don't worry about catching the conjunctivitis yourself, as it's an avian disease. To keep it from spreading, take feeders down and give them a good cleaning, rinsing in a solution of 1 part chlorine bleach to 9 parts water, then rinsing again before drying.