I wonder if he sings the same song as other colors of finches...

"to see and to hear"

Jeremiah 23:18

This is a purple finch. 

photo credit: allaboutbirds.org

Isn't he lovely? 

We see them a lot around our house.  They come to visit every Spring, and some years they've even settled into the nest in our patio cover.  Twice we've had baby birds, too, and gotten to enjoy their sweet, if incessant tweeting. 

One of these lovely fellows came to visit me last week.  I was sitting in the dining room ~ which is also our school room ~ when he landed on the clothesline.  He was fairly close to the window, and I could see him plainly ~ and hear him, too.  He sang his little tune for several seconds, and I put down my pen, and the paper I was grading, and just sat and watched and listened and enjoyed. 

But along with simply enjoying one of God's creations, I had a feeling of, I don't know... triumph somehow.  Success, almost.  'Cuz now I know what he sounds like, and forever after, when I hear that whistling, I'll know it's a purple finch. 

There are a lot of my backyard birds whose songs I already know ~ the crows, of course, though I'm hard pressed to call theirs a song.  And I know the squawk of the wild parrots that visit in the Spring and Summer.  I also know the song of the woodpecker who visits my apple tree, and the sound of the mourning doves. 

But there are chorus of other birds whose identities I don't know, because when they sing, I can't see them.  They are in the apple tree, hidden by leaves, or high up in the eucalyptus trees that line the streets of our neighborhood.  I can hear them, but I can't see them, to tell who's singing which song.

But the purple finch ~ well now I know.  And every time I hear his song, even though I can't see him, I know his voice. 

~ "Blessed are your eyes,

for they see,

and your ears,

     for they hear" ~

Matthew 13:16

~