Purple Finch

The Purple Finch, Carpodacus purpureus, is a small finch.

Adults have a short forked brown tail and brown wings. Adult males are raspberry red on the head, breast, back and rump; their back is streaked. Adult females have light brown upperparts and white underparts with dark brown streaks throughout; they have a white line on the face above the eye.

Their breeding habitat is coniferous and mixed forest in Canada and the northeastern United States,as well as various wooded areas along the U.S. Pacific coast. They nest on a horizontal branch or in a fork of a tree.

Birds from northern Canada migrate to the southern United States; other birds are permanent residents.

These birds forage in trees and bushes, sometimes in ground vegetation. They mainly eat seeds, berries and insects.

This bird has been displaced from some habitat by House Sparrows and then the introduction of House Finches in the east.

This is the state bird of New Hampshire.