House Finches nesting on our drainpipe

The house finches are back!

Although these finches can be seen throughout the year in parts of the Bay Area, they always arrive in our neighborhood in the spring, and stay until late fall. They seem to travel in small groups, and announce their arrival with their cheerful short chirps.

The males are rosy red around their face and upper breast.

The male in the photo above was eating dandelion seeds in our front yard.

Meanwhile close by a female house finch, apparently the male's partner, was gathering dried grass for nesting material.

Later on in the afternoon I spotted the pair resting on a bamboo arch in our native patch.

Here's the female finch picking twigs for the nest from our neighbor's tea tree.

Sometimes she does take breaks, too.

Here she is perched in the same tea tree.

It was apparent that the nest is somewhere close by, since the flights back and forth between material gathering were very quick.

I guessed that the nest was in our neighbors' tall and thick Pittosporum hedge.

You can imagine my surprise when I realized the nest is being built between a curve in our drainpipe and the north-facing wall of our house.

The main nest material appears to be twigs from the tea tree.

The dried grass the female was gathering probably is for the lining of the nest.

Here is the nest as seen from below.

It is about 10 feet from the ground.

Hopefully all goes well with the nest building and future baby house finches.