Dan

hmmm... Wonder about (2). Wouldn't a Chipping Sparrow have a brown cap and a darker/black eyeline?

National Geographic Field Guide to the Birds of North America. 6th edition. Page 523.

I checked a field guide again for all variations - the one labeled “juvenile” seems spot on.

Arghh.... I relent to your collective wisdom. Thanks all

maybe. But has some significant differences from my other goldfinches (of which I have a horde). - the back is orang'ish, not olive, the wing bars are orange'ish, it is a little larger, has only a yellow chin/breast not the belly (the belly is white), and the wings are jet black.

yes, yes, I know it is an awful pic. Had problems getting WIFI working on my camera yesterday so it is a photo of a photo. If not good enough I can try to get technology to work again. At my feeder yesterday (actually there were 3 of them) mixed in with the finches. I live in mountains of western NC - at about 3k feet in elevation. Any ideas?

Last 2 weeks of August my visitors declined 90%+, picking back up since 9/1. I guess could be migration thing, or something more-natural-and-yummy-than-my feeder-food came out in the area for a few weeks. Or the hawks are hanging around more.

Seems like lot of birds in my area (western NC mountains at about 3,000 ft) are just finishing up their molt - cardinals, mockingbirds, bluebirds,... Unless they are bald and shabby looking for other reasons. I don't think my other common feeder birds - nuthatch, brown thrasher, house finch, goldfinch, sparrow, chickadee, starling, dove, ... ever did it (or they hid when doing so).

I was thinking Song Sparrow too. It did have darker breast streaks than these photos, but no dark breast spot which may be typical for Song Sparrow? New variety called the “Western NC Mountain Spotless Song Sparrow”?

Wow. I saw what looks like the same species (top 2 pics) for the first time at my feeders yesterday. It stood out for me as I have never seen a bird with the 2 dark spots (1 under each side of the chin/malar area). and what seemed like a longer than usual tail. But I live in Western NC. Couldn't ID them.

Western NC. Very insistent on chasing away all other visitors. I assume Ruby based on locale, but wanted to verify,

I noticed the same thing in my yard. Over the last week they have begun to appear again, but in smaller numbers

I do much prefer the Mac UI over Windows - look/feel and actual productivity saver. And the number of supported gestures on the trackpad makes a mouse nearly obsolete for me. And so much "simpler", way too many options in WIndows to worry about. But you are correct, brute force updates? I had an update once take 17 hours and I had no choice as it triggered it while shutting the PC down in my office. I had to carry it out of my office, set it down on the seat of my car so it would continue updating on my drive home, carry it into the house still updating, etc. And AndreLamothe's comments are spot on. I worked at Cisco Systems for about a dozen years, during which time I hired several people from Apple. They tell me that in no way would today's problems at Apple have been tolerated under prior management. So grudgingly back to WIndows I go. Not because Windows is attracting me, but because Apple is chasing me away.

Awesome photo. Pileated Woodpeckers are my arch enemy. I live in a log house - they can peck a hole the size around of a tennis ball in a window frame in just a few minutes. And they aren't easily scared off, without coming right back.