Feeding the City Birds is rewarding in many ways.  Without handouts from humans, the presence of birds, such as these beautiful House Finches, would be rare.  Natural habitat for the small birds is very limited in San Francisco.  This will only worsen as the City becomes ever more densely built up.  The finches fill the streets with their beautiful songs from early Spring through mid-Summer.  Well fed, they have time to play.  Toys, such as old rabbit ears, will be put to good use by them.  Here we see a female, having landed, filled with pride; while to the left, we see breath-stopping determination on the face of the gold male finch coming in for a landing.

This illustration was published June 6, 2006 by City Birds.