The House Finch is an introduced bird to Vermont, first breeding here in 1976 (Renfrew 2013). All introduced birds are from the same subspecies, Haemorhous mexicanus frontalis. This makes identification within the state rather simple. However, it is difficult to distinguish the House Finch from other subspecies based on qualities other than range. The House Finch has many subspecies - 11 are currently recognized by Birds of the World (Badyaevm, Belloni, and Hill 2020).
On eBird, all of the House Finch subspecies are lumped into a single grouping, House Finch (Common). However, there is one other grouping - House Finch (McGregor). This subspecies used to live on a couple of islands off of the coast of Baja. It is now extinct, and there are no observations for it on eBird, which makes the grouping seem somewhat arbitrary.
Birds of the World (Badyaevm, Belloni, and Hill 2020) notes, of McGregors, that:
Like C. m. frontalis dorsum both paler and grayer and bill both large (depth at base > 11 mm, culmen > 12 mm) and compressed basally.
This would be difficult to identify in the field; look for a large bill. However, without a measurement, this could be easily misconstrued, and individual variation makes terms like "paler" unreliable.
I can tell these are probably frontalis as opposed to one of the other many subspecies because, to quote Birds of the World:
On the male, throat and upper breast red (varying to orange or yellow); ventrum moderately dark grayish brown; ventral streaks broad; dorsum medium gray-brown; crown suffused with red.
It's unclear whether all of these modifiers apply only to the male, which makes further identification difficult. Pyle doesn't cover the Mexican subspecis, but does mention that frontalis has a small bill and that the underparts are whitish with sparse browns streaking. Dull orange or red on the breast of the male could match either frontalis or solitudinus (Pyle 1997).
However, it's possible that Birds of the World doesn't paint a clear representation of mcgregori. Moore (1939) writes of Carpodacus mcgregori (presumably, before it was merged):
Specific characters. - Bill much larger than in C. mexanus. Resembles most closely C. m. clementis, but in males in March at least, darker above; streakings below somewhat wider; red or yellow coloration somewhat less extensive; bill and tarsus larger; females in March seem to be much more widely streaked below and darker above. Differs even more in the same characters from grinnelli, having red much less extensive on underparts and seldom any on back. Almost all of the males I have seen are yellow or orange-yellow.
On the other hand, this disagrees with Birds of the World, and is from first-hand accounts: this says that mcgregori is darker above, not paler. It also says that the bill is larger, twice, which is worrying. However, a lack of extensive red on the underparts and seldom any on the back could be a salient marker. If the bill is "much larger" in mcgregori, it's possible that this feature could be used in the field, too.
Ultimately, this is a tough bird to identify down to the subspecies comparatively. Instead, showing that a bird is frontalis may be the easiest option, and then noting that the other grouping is extinct.
To date, there are no records of other subspecies in Vermont. The record listed when this page was created was the first record of the Northern House Finch in Vermont with media.
Nomenclature:
Salient identification points:
Example Records:
Local subspecies records:
Needs:
These needs reflect eBird's database, and whether the bird has photos, audio, or sightings in a given area. "None" denotes that this species has been satisfactorily documented.