A reader asked: Could we have a house finch that is orange?
My answer: House Finches do vary greatly in the spectrum of red-orange tones, as you have noticed. We don't know as much as we'd like to know about why that happens, except that it has something to do with diet. Anyway, I trust some Ph.D. student will someday make that topic his/her dissertation.
This finch was photographed in southern Arizona last spring.
