Hi Everyone, Here¹s a little note I sent in response to a question about i.d.¹ing females of these two species. I¹m sure someone will respond to point out some big error I¹m making somewhere :-) Hi Russell, Here are the differences I look for: -the Purple Finch is going to be about the same size, perhaps even a little smaller, than the House Sparrows -the Rose-Breasted Grosbeak is about 40-50% larger than the House Sparrows -the grosbeak has a more prominent white supercilium, which also comes much more forward -I think the streaking is usually heavier in the finch -last point, not unimportant, is that our location does not seem to be attractive to Purple Finches‹I've never seen one in the neighborhood‹while Rose-breasted Grosbeaks, if not exactly common here, are certainly seen from time to time, and sometimes even at our feeders. ‹Steve Enjoying the autumn, in my humble opinion the only really beautiful and dramatic season in Cleveland, Steve Cagan Cleveland Heights Cuyahoga County ----------- Steve Cagan, photographer www.stevecagan.com www.pbase.com/stevecagan ("catalogs" of images) 216-932-2753 (USA) ______________________________________________________________________ Ohio-birds mailing list, a service of the Ohio Ornithological Society. Our thanks to Miami University for hosting this mailing list. Additional discussions can be found in our forums, at www.ohiobirds.org/forum/. You can join or leave the list, or change your options, at: http://listserv.muohio.edu/scripts/wa.exe?LIST=OHIO-BIRDS Send questions or comments about the list to: [log in to unmask]