[CT Birds] Orange House Finch

[james.bair at snet.net]

Dear Bev:

You wrote:

We have a male housefinch which has been here, on and off, for  quite some 
time.  It has the orange coloration on its head, throat and  upper chest, 
instead of the red.
I wonder if that orange coloration transfer to its young, if  it 
breeds.....does anyone know?
 

I always thought that it was strictly hereditary. Populations with large number of orange or yellow individuals tend to be isolated. However, some people think that the color variations may be diet or disease-related. A recent article in the Auk criticized the study that thought the color was disease-related. It appears that for the time being, we do not know for sure. On the web, the Cornell Ornithology Lab site has more general stuff on House Finches than anyone else because they have been doing the House Finch conjunctivitis survey. Their site says the color variations are from diet.


http://www.birds.cornell.edu/pfw/AboutBirdsandFeeding/HoufinColorVariants.htm

http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa3793/is_199901/ai_n8828775

http://elibrary.unm.edu/sora/wb/v25n03/p0163-p0168.pdf

http://www.bioone.org/perlserv/?request=get-document&doi=10.1642%2F0004-8038(2001)118%5B0256%3APAPCIT%5D2.0.CO%3B2

Jim Bair