ABSTRACT
The breeding range for Cassin's Finch extends from southern British Columbia, Alberta, and Manitoba into northern Arizona and Baja California. Cassin's Finch prefers a mixed forest habitat of the alpine meadow zone and breeds wherever an abundance of food exists with specific locations changing from year to year. All females and males until approximately 14 months old have a streaked gray-brown plumage, but they are separable in the breeding season by incubation patch. Few yearling males breed and territory of older males involves a mated-female distance. A paired male excludes other finch males from the vicinity of his mate and is dependent upon the location of the female which does change. Song is not used in defense of the female, nor is site attachment evident in the selection of song perches, precluding the use of census techniques (spot map, line transect, strip transect) incorporating counts of singing males.
