Identify this bird?

Submitted by Sibyl on Tue, 2008/12/02 - 10:44am.

I found this image on another website with a request for help in identification. I usually am pretty good at identifying birds but am stuck somewhere with no field guides. Helpful info: this bird flocks with house sparrows and acts like a house sparrow. Not-so-helpful lack of info: this bird was sighted somewhere in the lower 48 or Canada but I have no further knowledge of where.
Dark sparrow-ish bird perched on feeder.
My personal guess is that this is some sort of dark-phase or mutant house sparrow, but don't have a lot of confidence in my guess.

6
vote


Junco?

Possibly a dark-eyed junco. (Scroll down the page at link.)

Link...

The bird.

Colleague Morgan Simmons says it looks like "a house finch to me, although its pretty dark."

WhitesCreek's picture
tough to be more certain

tough to be more certain without knowing where it was taken, when it was taken, and frankly, a better shot would help, but...I would go with a female house or purple finch.

house sparrow

I agree it is a mutant house sparrow, check the beak. Looks like a female. This past weekend I noticed a very light tan female house sparrow with the regular flock at my place. She was very different looking but definitely a house sparrow.

Dark-eyed juncos have a prominent white breast, so I think not.

Also the native birds tend not to hang with house sparrows.

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