Wasatch Front · Finches

Finches, seeds & snowfields

A House Finch sits on nearly two-thirds of the valley's winter checklists, and goldfinches work every thistle patch — the common core mostly sorts on color and bill. The group's real hinges are two: the red-finch problem (House vs Cassin's, where the tempting mark — how red the bird looks — is the least reliable), and the Wasatch's own specialty, the rosy-finches that mob the Alta and Snowbird lots November to April and barely register in a countywide number. This key leads with the bill, is honest about where a streaky female quits, and flags the birds that need a photo.

01

Four builds, on sight

Before species, bucket by color scheme and bill — it narrows a finch to a pair fast. One build is season-and-elevation gated (see the amber box).

Warm red / rosy wash + brownHouse · Cassin's

Sparrow-sized, streaky brown, with red or rosy-pink on head and breast. The everyday feeder finch. Don't trust how red — House Finch red is diet-driven and ranges to orange or yellow. Read the bill and crown (§03).

Bright yellow + blackLesser · American Goldfinch

Tiny, canary-bright, black cap or wings. Bouncy flight with a "po-ta-to-chip" call, on thistle, sunflower, and weedy edges. Split on back color and undertail (§05); winter and female birds go drab.

Streaky brown + a yellow flashPine Siskin

Streaked all over, small and restless, a thin sharp bill — and a yellow flash in the wing and tail base. Flocks (often with goldfinches) in alders and conifers. The streaky-female quit-point lives here (§05).

Odd or heavy bill · coniferscrossbill · grosbeaks

The bill gives it away: crossed mandibles (Red Crossbill) or a massive pale conical bill (Evening / Pine Grosbeak). Chunky birds of high conifers, irruptive and nomadic — here some years, gone others.

The fifth build is seasonal. A frosty-pink finch on a gray-brown body, at a high-Wasatch parking lot or feeder (Alta, Snowbird) between November and April, is a rosy-finch — a whole sub-group of its own (§05). They flock by the hundreds up there in winter, yet read as merely "uncommon" countywide because almost nobody submits a checklist from the cirques in January. It's the tool's biggest findability-vs-density gap (§06). A summer or lowland "rosy-finch" is almost always something else.
02

Walk it down

Tap through to a name — or to an honest "sp."

No-JS fallback — the tap-through version loads when scripts run.

1
Warm red / rosy wash on head & breast, brown streaky flanks, feeders & foothills → House / Cassin's. Short curved bill + rounded crown + blurry streaks = House; longer straight bill + peaked crown + crisp streaks + pale eyering = Cassin's. Purple Finch is essentially absent here (§06), so it's a two-way.
2
Tiny, bright yellow & black, on thistle / weedy fields → Lesser / American Goldfinch. Greenish-black back + yellowish undertail + white primary patch = Lesser; clean yellow + black forecap + white undertail = American. A drab winter bird can honestly stay "goldfinch sp." (§06).
3
Streaky brown all over, small & restless, a yellow flash in wing/tail → Pine Siskin. Fine sharp streaks + thin pointed bill + yellow flash. No yellow and no bill detail on a distant streaky finch → "finch sp." (§06).
4
Odd or heavy bill, high conifers → Red Crossbill / Evening Grosbeak / Pine Grosbeak. Crossed bill = Red Crossbill (two white wingbars = the rare White-winged, §06); huge pale conical bill + yellow-black = Evening Grosbeak; plump rose-red with a stubby dark bill = Pine Grosbeak.
5
Frosty pink on a gray-brown body, high Wasatch, Nov–Apr → rosy-finch. Gray head-panel + brown body = Gray-crowned; darker slaty body = Black; brown, no gray on the head = Brown-capped (review — §06). A far flock is honestly "rosy-finch sp."
6
Distant / streaky / backlit — can't resolve color or bill → "finch sp." A real, correct log — see §06.
03

Reading a red finch — House vs Cassin's

The group's signature knot. Read the bill and crown first; the streaking confirms. Color — how red — is the trap, not the tell.

curved · stubbyHousestraight · pointedCassin's
Bill — the culmen line

The most reliable mark, and it survives a female. House's upper edge (culmen) is short and curved, the bill stubby and blunt. Cassin's is longer and straight, ending in a sharp point. Trace the top of the bill: convex = House, dead-straight = Cassin's.

roundedred on brow/breastpeakedpink brightest on peak
Head shape & where the color sits

Structure over hue. House ♂ has a rounded crown; red/orange sits on the forehead, brow, throat, and breast, fading to plain brown. Cassin's ♂ shows a distinct peaked crown with the brightest rosy-pink right on that peak, a cleaner pink wash, and a pale eyering.

blurryHousecrisp · fineCassin's + eyering
Streaking — confirm on any bird

Holds on females and dull birds. House streaks are diffuse and blurry, on a muddy-brown ground, face plain. Cassin's streaks are crisp, fine, and sharp on whiter underparts, with fine dark streaks on the undertail coverts and a bold pale eyering.

Take the bill and the streaking together. Curved stubby bill + blurry streaks + a town/feeder setting is House; straight pointed bill + crisp streaks + pale eyering + a conifer or migration setting is Cassin's. And drop Purple Finch from the equation — the classic House/Cassin's/Purple trio is a two-way here, because Purple Finch is essentially absent and a review species in Salt Lake County (§06). Don't reach for it to explain an odd red finch.
04

The players

Common → rare. Amber box = the clinching mark. Tap a name for eBird (photos, calls).

House Finch

Haemorhous mexicanus

Red finch
ClincherShort, curved (convex) culmen on a stubby bill, a rounded crown, and blurry, diffuse brown streaks on the flanks. Male: red/orange on brow, throat, breast, over plain brown.
Curved stubby billBlurry streaksFeeders / town

The default finch of yards, feeders, and foothill neighborhoods — on nearly two-thirds of winter checklists, the commonest finch here by a mile. Male red varies to orange or yellow with diet, so don't key on the color.

Common · 63.0% at peak (Dec)

Cassin's Finch

Haemorhous cassinii

Red finch
ClincherLonger, straight culmen ending in a sharp point, a peaked crown with the brightest rosy-pink on the peak, crisp fine streaks, and a pale eyering. Undertail coverts finely streaked.
Straight pointed billPeaked crownConifers

The montane red finch — breeds in Wasatch conifers, comes down in migration and winter, sometimes to foothill feeders. A rich warbling song and a dry two-note flight call. Cleaner and crisper than House throughout.

Fairly common · 10.8% at peak (May)

Lesser Goldfinch

Spinus psaltria

Goldfinch
ClincherBack is greenish to glossy black (never clean yellow), undertail coverts yellowish, and a white patch at the base of the primaries flashes in flight. Male: black cap, yellow below.
Greenish/black backWhite primary patchYear-round

Our resident little goldfinch — weedy fields, foothill scrub, and gardens, giving a plaintive descending "tee-yee." Holds more color through winter than American does; abundant spring into summer.

Common · 38.9% at peak (May)

American Goldfinch

Spinus tristis

Goldfinch
ClincherBreeding male: clean lemon-yellow body with a black forecap and white undertail. All plumages: undertail coverts clean white, no white primary patch. Winter birds go drab gray-brown.
Clean yellow + black capWhite undertailWeedy fields

Bright as a canary in summer, drab in winter when it flocks with siskins on thistle and birch. "Po-ta-to-chip" in bouncy flight. Peaks here in late fall — the winter flocks are the drab-plumage puzzle.

Common · 21.8% at peak (Nov)

Pine Siskin

Spinus pinus

Streaky
ClincherFinely streaked all over on a thin, sharp, pointed bill, with a yellow flash in the wing and at the base of the tail (obvious in flight). No red, no clean cap.
Yellow wing flashFine streaksThin sharp bill

A goldfinch in streaky disguise — flocks with them in alders, birches, and conifers, giving a rising, buzzy "zzzreeee." Erratic and irruptive: some winters swarm, others nearly blank. The classic "what's this streaky bird" (§05).

Common · 21.9% at peak (Jul)

Red Crossbill

Loxia curvirostra

Conifer
ClincherMandible tips crossed — unmistakable at close range — on a chunky, short-tailed body. Male brick-red, female yellow-green; plain dark wings (no bold wingbars, vs White-winged, §06).
Crossed billPlain wingsCones

Prying seeds from spruce and pine cones, clambering parrot-like, calling "kip-kip" overhead. Nomadic and irruptive, wandering to wherever the cone crop is — multiple call "types" exist, best confirmed by voice.

Uncommon · 6.1% at peak (Jul)

Pine Grosbeak

Pinicola enucleator

Conifer
ClincherBig, plump, and long-tailed, with a small stubby dark bill in a round head. Male rose-red; female/immature gray with rusty-gold on head and rump. Two white wingbars.
Rose-red, stubby billLong tailHigh spruce-fir

A slow, tame, high-elevation finch of Wasatch spruce-fir — often lets you walk right up. Its countywide bar understates it: it's a subalpine specialist, findable where the habitat is (§06). Mellow whistled song.

Uncommon · 4.0% at peak (Jul)

Evening Grosbeak

Hesperiphona vespertina

Conifer
ClincherA massive pale (whitish-green) conical bill on a heavy body. Male: burnt-yellow with a dark head, yellow eyebrow, and bold white wing patches. Female: silvery-gray, same big bill and white in the wing.
Huge pale billWhite wing patchNoisy flocks

Blunt, loud flocks that descend on box-elder and feeders, ringing "peer" calls. Irruptive — some winters conspicuous, others absent entirely. Note: now placed in Hesperiphona, off the Old-World hawfinch genus.

Scarce · 2.5% at peak (May)

Gray-crowned Rosy-Finch

Leucosticte tephrocotis

Rosy-finch
ClincherMilk-chocolate brown body with a broad gray panel across the ear and back of the crown, a dark forecrown, and a frosty rose-pink wash on wing-coverts, rump, and belly. The default rosy-finch here.
Gray head-panelBrown bodyAlta / Snowbird

The commonest of the winter rosy-finch flocks that pack the Alta and Snowbird lots and feeders Nov–Apr. "Uncommon" countywide is a findability artifact — up there in season it's in the hundreds (§06).

Uncommon · 4.2% at peak (Mar)

Black Rosy-Finch

Leucosticte atrata

Rosy-finch
ClincherLike Gray-crowned but the body is blackish-slaty, not brown — visibly darker overall — with the same gray crown-band and frosty pink on wings and belly. Scan mixed flocks for the dark ones.
Blackish bodyGray crown-bandMixed flocks

A Great Basin / Wasatch breeder that winters with Gray-crowned in the same high flocks — usually the minority. Sort it by the dark, sooty body tone against its browner cousins. Same high-elevation window.

Scarce · 2.8% at peak (Apr)

Brown-capped Rosy-Finch Review

Leucosticte australis

Rosy-finch
ClincherThe plainest head — no gray panel, just a brown cap over a warm-brown body, and the pinkest of the three. A rosy-finch with a clean brown (not gray) head in a Wasatch flock is worth a photo — it's a review species (§06).
No gray on headPinkestDocument it

Primarily a Colorado Rockies bird that turns up rarely in the Wasatch winter flocks. Recorded here but flagged for documentation by the records committee — Merlin isn't proof (§06). Look for the gray-less head.

Rare / very local · 0.2% at peak (Nov)
05

The ones that fool you

The two goldfinches, the streaky-female quit-point, and the rosy-finch sub-key.

Lesser vs American Goldfinch

Males in summer are easy — Lesser has a greenish-to-black back, American a clean lemon body with a black forecap. The females and winter birds are the work: check the undertail coverts — yellowish/buff on Lesser, clean white on American — and look for Lesser's white patch at the base of the primaries, which American lacks (it shows white wingbars but no basal patch). In winter, American fades to a cold gray-brown while Lesser keeps more green. A drab bird that shows neither mark cleanly is honestly "New World goldfinch sp." (§06).

The streaky knot — "what IS that brown finch"

The group's honest quit-point. Pine Siskin is the tell-apart-able one: fine sharp streaks, a thin pointed bill, and a yellow flash in wing and tail (sometimes subtle, but nothing else here has it). Female House Finch is plain-faced with blurry, diffuse streaks and a short curved stubby bill. Female Cassin's has crisp fine streaks, a sharp straight bill, and a bold pale eyering — neither House nor Cassin's shows any yellow flash. A distant streaky finch with no visible yellow and no readable bill is honestly "finch sp." (§06) — don't force it.

Rosy-finch sub-key — Gray-crowned · Black · Brown-capped

All three share the recipe: a dark forecrown and a frosty rose-pink wash on wing-coverts, rump, and belly. Sort them on body tone and head. Gray-crowned: a milk-chocolate brown body with a broad gray ear/crown panel — the default. Black: the same gray crown-band but the body is blackish-slaty, obviously darker — scan the flock for the dark ones. Brown-capped: no gray on the head at all, a plain brown cap, and the pinkest overall — and a review species here, so photograph the head (§06). Window is strict: Nov–Apr, high Wasatch; a far flock is honestly "rosy-finch sp."

06

Don't import these · provenance

Ceilings, ghosts, review birds, and where the eBird number lies.

The honest "sp." — real logs, not failures

Categories that appear in this county's eBird bar-chart data because birders hit these ceilings routinely. Use them instead of guessing.

  • "Finch sp." — a distant, backlit, or streaky finch whose bill and color you can't resolve. The catch-all quit-point; a real, correct log.
  • "New World goldfinch sp." — a drab winter or female goldfinch that won't show the undertail-covert color or a primary patch. Lesser and American both go dull; don't force one.
  • "Rosy-finch sp." — a high-flock too far to pick out gray-headed vs slaty-bodied vs gray-less individuals. Genuinely common up top in winter.
  • "Crossbill sp." — a crossbill heard flying over ("kip-kip") but not seen well enough for Red vs White-winged. Both occur (White-winged is the rarer, §below).

The trio that collapses to a two-way

Why this key drops the classic third red finch.

  • Purple Finch review · unrecorded — the textbook House/Cassin's/Purple trio is a two-way in Salt Lake County. Purple Finch is essentially absent from the eBird histogram (~0.05%) and is a review species not reported on the 2020 county checklist. So don't reach for it to explain an odd red finch — read House vs Cassin's marks (§03) instead. A genuine Purple Finch (raspberry-washed, blurry-flanked, notched tail, no crisp streaks) would be a records-committee bird here.

The findability flag — where the number undersells the bird

eBird frequency is countywide findability, not local density. These finches read low only because few checklists reach their habitat.

  • The rosy-finches are the flagship gap. Gray-crowned (4.2%), Black (2.8%), and Brown-capped (0.2%) all read Uncommon-to-Rare countywide — yet Nov–Apr they flock by the hundreds at the Alta and Snowbird parking lots and feeders. Almost nobody submits a complete checklist from the 8,000–11,000 ft cirques in midwinter, so the county number badly understates them. They are a seasonal high-elevation specialty — abundant in the right place and window. Don't demote them on the bar alone.
  • Pine Grosbeak, Red Crossbill, and Evening Grosbeak are the montane-conifer version of the same story — irruptive, nomadic specialists whose valley-weighted bars trail their real presence in spruce-fir. Where the cone crop is, they can be locally easy; some years they simply aren't here.

Recorded, but review — a Merlin ID isn't proof

On the 2020 UBRC Salt Lake County list (or its lumped equivalent) but flagged for documentation. Photograph and report to records@utahbirds.org.

  • Brown-capped Rosy-Finch review — the one rosy-finch that needs documenting (§05). A rosy-finch with a clean brown, gray-less head in a Wasatch flock is the candidate; get the head on camera. Notably, this is a case where the sources agree: eBird shows it occurs (barely), and UBRC lists it as recorded-but-review — both say "yes, but prove it."
  • Redpoll review — a scarce, irruptive winter finch (~0.4%, Jan). The 2024 taxonomy lumped Common + Hoary + Lesser into a single "Redpoll" (Acanthis flammea), so eBird now carries one species; the 2020 county checklist predates the lump and still splits Common Redpoll (recorded, review) and Hoary Redpoll (unrecorded, review). Either way, a small frosty streaked finch with a red cap and black chin here is a review bird — document it.

The eBird-only ghost — an escapee, not a vagrant

In the histogram but off the county list, for a mundane reason.

  • European Goldfinch not countable — shows ~0.15% in the eBird data but is absent from the UBRC county list. These are almost certainly escaped cage birds, not wild vagrants — eBird logs escapees, the records committee doesn't count them. So the two sources "disagree" only because they're answering different questions. A red-faced, gold-winged finch at a feeder is a pretty escapee, not a county tick.

Scarce, but genuinely recorded

Reported and not review — just thin in the histogram.

  • White-winged Crossbill (~1.3%, Aug) — the rarer crossbill, on the county list and non-review. It's the one to separate from Red Crossbill: two bold white wingbars on black wings, a pinker (males) body, and a preference for spruce. A crossbill with white wingbars is worth a careful look and a note.