Purple finches breed across Canada, throughout the northeastern U.S., southward through the Appalachians and along the Pacific Coast. In winter, they leave their northernmost haunts and appear across the Midwest, the Mid Atlantic Region and the Southeastern U.S.
Since I have not been feeding birds at our Columbia, Missouri, property in recent years, I do not often encounter these winter visitors. Today, however, while birding east of town, I came across a pair of purple finches, foraging in a grove of trees and thickets along a country road; there they had joined northern cardinals, white-throated sparrows and American goldfinches to feast on seeds.
No doubt, a couple of feeders in the backyard would draw them to our property but the handouts are more likely to benefit house finches, non-natives that outnumber and threaten the welfare of purple finches in many parts of the U.S. (especially the Northeast). Worse yet, the feeders might make these winter visitors easy targets for a pair of Cooper's hawks that reside in the neighborhood.
