WHY ARE PURPLE FINCHES MORE ABUNDANT IN SOME YEARS AND NOT OTHERS?

      The purple finch has long been special to me. This is because many years ago when I was in the fifth grade, my class took a field trip to a wildlife sanctuary operated by the National Audubon Society.  While there, I was captivated watching a purple finches banding operation. In fact, I vividly remember saying to myself, I am going to do that one day.  About two decades later, I became a wildlife biologist and banded my first purple finch.

      Since that time, I learned that the number of purple finches we see at our feeders during the winter here in Georgia fluctuate dramatically. Some years we see only a handful of them at our feeders.  Then every three years or so we see significantly more of them,

       While biologists do not fully understand while is behind these emigrations, it has become apparent that they are more likely to widely disperse during the winters following a seed crop failure on their breeding grounds.

       For the sake of those of us they enjoy watching these beautiful birds feeding on sunflower seeds in our backyards, I hope the winter of 2024-2025 is one of the infrequent years when a large number of purple finches winter in the South.