Haemorhous purpureus
Silhouette: Andy Wilson · PhyloPic
In 3 days ~30% in a week ~60%
The purple finch (Haemorhous purpureus) is a bird in the finch family, Fringillidae. It breeds in the northern United States, southern Canada, and the west coast of North America. The purple finch was formally described in 1789 by the German naturalist Johann Friedrich Gmelin in his revised and expanded edition of Carl Linnaeus's Systema Naturae. He placed it with the finches in the genus Fringilla and coined the binomial name Fringilla purpurea. Gmelin specified the locality as Carolina. Gmelin based his account on the "purple finch" that had been described and illustrated by the English naturalist Mark Catesby in his book The Natural History of Carolina, Florida and the Bahama Islands. The purple finch is now one of three finches placed in the genus Haemorhous that was introduced in 1837 by the English naturalist William Swainson.
Two subspecies are recognised: This species and the other "American rosefinches" were formerly included with the rosefinches of Eurasia in the genus Carpodacus; however, the three North... Wikipedia →
| # | Park | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Kluane National Park | 🇨🇦 Canada | |
| 2 | Acadia National Park | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 3 | Gros Morne National Park | 🇨🇦 Canada | |
| 4 | Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 5 | Riding Mountain National Park | 🇨🇦 Canada | |
| 6 | Yosemite National Park | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 7 | Redwood National Park | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 8 | Cape Breton Highlands National Park | 🇨🇦 Canada | |
| 9 | Elk Island National Park | 🇨🇦 Canada | |
| 10 | Voyageurs National Park | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 11 | Pacific Rim National Park Reserve | 🇨🇦 Canada | |
| 12 | Olympic National Park | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 13 | Isle Royale National Park | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 14 | Point Pelee National Park | 🇨🇦 Canada | |
| 15 | Great Bear Rainforest | 🇨🇦 Canada | |
| 16 | Great Smoky Mountains National Park | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 17 | Jasper National Park | 🇨🇦 Canada | |
| 18 | Shenandoah National Park | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 19 | Congaree National Park | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 20 | Banff National Park | 🇨🇦 Canada | |
| 21 | Channel Islands National Park | 🇺🇸 United States |
| # | City | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Vancouver | 🇨🇦 Canada | |
| 2 | Seattle | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 3 | Portland | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 4 | San Francisco | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 5 | Montreal | 🇨🇦 Canada | |
| 6 | Edmonton | 🇨🇦 Canada | |
| 7 | Sacramento | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 8 | New York City | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 9 | Chicago | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 10 | Toronto | 🇨🇦 Canada |
With luck
About 10% of wildlife watchers report a Purple Finch sighting in Cape Breton Highlands National Park on a given day, based on 99 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 55th most-seen of the 145 birds we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 30%, and over a week to about 60%, if each day is a fresh chance.
April to June
In those months about 20% of wildlife watchers report a Purple Finch in Cape Breton Highlands National Park on a given day, against under 5% in September and December–January, the lowest months.
Between 8 and 11 am
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Purple Finch sightings with a recorded time, and about 8 in 10 of them come between 6 am and 6 pm: it is a daytime animal.
8th of 21
Of the 21 parks where we can rate Purple Finch sightings, Cape Breton Highlands National Park ranks 8th at about 10%. The best odds are in Kluane National Park (Canada, about 30%), Acadia National Park (United States, about 20%) and Gros Morne National Park (Canada, about 20%).
Same family: Fringillidae
The closest relatives of the Purple Finch that you can see in Cape Breton Highlands National Park (family Fringillidae, Finches, Euphonias, and Allies) are American Goldfinch (about 50%), White-winged Crossbill (about 20%) and Pine Siskin (about 10%), with each one's daily chance of a sighting.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Purple Finch is recorded against all the birds logged in Cape Breton Highlands National Park (99 verified sightings from 2019 to 2026), calibrated against known sighting rates. Figures are rounded to the nearest 10% because citizen-science data supports honest approximations, not decimals, and months with records from fewer than five people show "—". How it works.
