Photo Image: Female house finch considers both the tree and the neighbors before making nest.

Already (late January) this year the finches have been stopping by check out the neighborhood.  They have alternated with mourning doves in using this Blue Spruce as a nesting site.  This photo was taken last year, in March.  The female and male both came and looked around.  But they decided to move the nest to another site.  So we had doves nesting later on, instead.

I noticed that the whole community of house finches had chosen another location, just south of here.  As annoyed as finches are, at times, with visits from their own kind, they seem to collect in an area as a larger group, and not to live very far away from relatives and friends.