On this cold but sunny mid-March day, House Finches dominate the sunflower seeds I scattered in my back garden. I know their chatter very well. It is a happy sound, and when they sing, my husband says it might be the most common complex song we hear often. I know the wide finch beak and the soft chest stripes of the females. I know the red-orange cap and chest of the males well enough to wonder if this particular finch is particularly bright and therefore more attractive to the females around him.
These House Finches are so common it is easy to forget that the birds in my yard may be something else entirely. The females may have slightly stronger streaks on their chests. The orange-red may extend to the back of the head and stain the wings, dulling the wingbars. The song may be even more rapid than the House Finches. These birds may be Purple Finches, one of the birds of my Michigan childhood, one that winters here but breeds farther north.
I remind myself to pay attention and to see the rarer bird when the common one is so easy to see. I remind myself to really look and listen, not only at these two birds, but at all before me. What you are saying might not be what I think you are saying. I can only find out if I truly pay attention. So I’ll let the finches be a meditation on humility, that I may not see what I think I see and I will only discover this if I learn to really open myself to experience.
House Finch: Photo credit: By John Benson from Madison WI – Another House FinchUploaded by snowmanradio, CC BY 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=18690313
Purple Finch: By Cephas – Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=15362339
Slow Birding 