Posted by Greg Laden on March 26, 2016 
You all know this happened.
But there is some controversy over what kind of bird it is.
There is no doubt whatsoever that the bird was a finch. However, what kind? Most likely a house finch, because they are common, and the most likely to live in a big auditorium thingie and not be fearful of people.
A pic of the bird is above. Here is another:
What do you think it is?
It was The Holy Spirit.
It likely was chirping the song: “What is it to bern” by Finch.
I can’t wait to see what SNL does with this.
I’m not a bird person, but near as I can tell from “All the Birds of North American” looks most like a house finch.
Did someone say Birdie Sanders?
a green (white) house finch
That’s a white house finch.
Don’t tell Donald, but I hear that Bernie has twelve finches.
My first thought on seeing the flash of yellow was that it’s a pine siskin. I have a lot of them in my yard each year and they are far “tamer” than sparrows.
Angela, what is a green house finch? A variant of a house finch or some other species?
I thought a “white house finch” was a color morph of a house finch. If so, this is not what of those because it is not white. But I don’t know my western birds very well.
[…] the Easter Bunny, who I believe is a friend of that bird that visited Senator Sanders the other day, left Bernie a nice basket last […]
Before I took a closer look, my first impression was a vireo. That’s the problem with going by color. The lighting, camera, and color context can be very deceptive.
Going by color alone in the two shots above, you might be tempted to say it was two different birds.
Aside from the overall form of the bird, a hard look at the patterns of light and dark on the folded wings and breast is revealing. To my untutored eye, it’s a reasonably close match to the female house finch in my guide.
Evening Grosbeak
It’s a female house finch.
“white house finch” above is a joke based on the office Bernie is running for, I’m sure.
Definitely not an evening grosbeak. Those are huge, bright yellow and black. This is either a pine siskin or a house finch in odd lighting.
It looks like a finch to me. Hard to tell from color, but it seems a bit greenish, which could be the female Goldfinch. The males are bright yellow, but the juveniles and females are more plain and can look chartreuse/ brown. They just showed up 2 weeks ago in Denver, so they’re coming back from migration.
Female House Finch.
After consulting my bird books, I think the bird on the podium was a female White-winged Crossbill and therefore a finch for sure.
It appears to be a Lesser Goldfinch, formerly known as a Green Backed Goldfinch.
http://www.dfw.state.or.us/species/birds/finches_grosbeak_house_sparrow.asp
And the song is really lovely.
Female Lesser Goldfinch
http://www.swartzentrover.com/cotor/Photos/Hiking/Birds/BirdPages/LesserGoldfinch.htm
#FeelTheBird
#BirdieOrBust
Female house finch. It’s been confirmed (sigh).
[…] looking Hilary Clinton and a caption “I’ll get you and your little bird, too,” a reference to the finch that landed on the podium during a Bernie Sanders speech. It was posted by a progressive woman (a Sanders supporter) with a […]
It’s a house finch, folks! Love Bernie.
It’s a house finch, folks!
Holy crap, Pierre-Normand Houle blew my mind with his comment! Love Bernie, love Finch, love Bernie and the finch.
Finch ?? hmmm My research tells me its an Omen Pigeon
BeSpoke Folly: “My research tells me its an Omen Pigeon”
“Come with me, Mahhhhrk!”
Female or Juvenile House Finch. Hubby is mostly reddish in Spring.
I’d also say it’s a pine siskin. House Finches look more red. I have never seen a house finch looking this yellow.
Yeah, actually I think it is a female house finch after all. Beak is to big for pine siskin and females don’t have much red on them.
When I first saw house finches about four or five years ago here in Calgary, I had a bit of a hard time identifying them. They have gone from being very rare here to quite common year-round residents. I often see them in with house sparrows, so it is necessary to look fairly closely to distinguish the females of the two species – they aren’t hard to tell apart, but you do have to see them clearly, since they are very similar in size, shape and “average” color.
I’m quite fond of them. They sing big long strings of pleasant, musical random tweatelage (unlike the house sparrows).
It has a heavily-streaked breast, so it can’t be a goldfinch or lesser goldfinch, probably a female house finch and it’s just the lighting that makes it look yellowish.
I used my Audubon app to find this bird. The only bird that resembles this one and can be found in that area, and is the same size and shape, is the California Towhee. The bird family is New World Sparrows.
My first thought, like Douglas’, was Pine Siskin, but seeing the stills says otherwise.
I think it’s a Black and Blue finch. My sister insists that it is white and gold though.
Pine siskin. It’s got a tiny bit of yellow. A female house finch is more whitish and brown. Also, pine siskins are known to be very unafraid of people. One landed on my son’s head once when we were on our porch!
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