Friday, July 07, 2006
Guests from the west: little western birds have invaded the East!
Little western birds have invaded the East!
Hi, I'm Freddy Finch, and those are my babies in the nest at right. My mate and I raise our young in homey places--like that windowsill on a house. And some of our cousins build nests near houses all across the country. That's why we're called house finches!
Most wild animals live in wild places. But we house finches also like living in cities, towns, and suburbs. You could say we like to call your house our home. Wherever you live in the United States, you most likely have house-finch houseguests. We hang out in the best backyards from coast to coast.
But it wasn't always this way. At one time, house finches nested in trees, cactuses, and rocky ledges of the West. We moved into nearby towns and cities as soon as they were built. Then we finches made a "hop" from the West to the East. This is the way it happened:
About 60 years ago, when your grandparents were kids, some California pet dealers got the idea that house finches would make great pets. (People admired our pretty red feathers. They also liked our long, warbly songs.)
Anyway, the dealers caught some house finches and sold them to pet stores in the East. To make us seem more exciting, they called us "Hollywood Finches," because we came from California.
Before long, wildlife officers in New York City discovered the birds in pet shops. They ordered the owners to stop selling the birds. (It's against the law in the United States to sell wild birds.)
THE GREAT ESCAPE
One owner (and maybe more) was afraid he'd be arrested. So he decided to get rid of the "evidence" by setting his finches free. Those western birds liked the East. They settled right down to raise families. Soon the baby birds grew up and had families of their own. In just a few years, there were hundreds of us living in and around New York City.
Over the years, my relatives moved from one town to the next. We spread out far from New York. (Look at the map to see where we went.) And not long ago, we eastern house finches met up with our western cousins!
If you live east of the Rocky Mountains, you're likely to find us everywhere except where there aren't many houses. We feel right at home around buildings, because they have such good places for us to nest. You might find our nests under the eaves of roofs, in hanging plants, on barn rafters, and on windowsills of buildings.
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