Purple Finches

All of a sudden today a little gang of purple finches arrives. I'm often unsure whether I'm looking at house finches or purple finches - but what helps enormously is if there are some females and/or immature males in the group. The male house finch looks a lot like the male purple finch to me, but the females and immature males are very distinctly different. This page is the ID page for the purple finch. This page is the ID page for the house finch. See what I mean?

Now I'm hoping some pine siskins will appear! The winter bird fest is beginning. The white-throated sparrows are arriving. A lot of blue jays are now hanging around again (they live here year round, but I get a lot more of them right out front in the winter). Haven't seen a junco yet though...