pcon2009

Taking a look at photos of the Brown Thrasher, that definitely seems like a possibility. Unfortunately I didn't get any photos as I was busy working and didn't have my camera, but I will definitely keep my eye out for this one! (Side note, when I first red your reply I almost refuted it because I was picturing a Brown Creeper which I have seen before but only once. I am glad I did the search for it anyway because I was confusing these two birds!)

Yesterday I was doing some landscaping in an area of basically scrub-land, with some sporadic small to medium trees, but mostly open area with a lot of tall grasses and shrubbery. I saw a bird fly up from the ground and perch about 6' in a tree, and to my eye, it looked to be about the size of a blue jay, or a bit smaller, but was brownish and seemed to hold its tail in a very wren-like manner. Are there any wrens that would be this large? It was larger than sparrow sized, somewhere between the size of a robin (though not really robin/thrush shaped) and a typical blue-jay. Any possible ideas what this bird could have been? This was in North-eastern Ohio and was on May 6th. Any thoughts or possibilities I could look into would be appreciated. As a side note, this area has already been home to at least 3 new bird species for me to add to my life list, including a woodcock and towhee, so it could definitely be an uncommon or infrequent species. So, even if you have a slight possibility, please don't hesitate to suggest anything that could even remotely be seen in my area. Thanks!

Northeast Ohio, earlier today 24-Dec at my feeders. Adult female brown-headed cowbird?

I agree with goldfinch; while it does appear to have some rufous coloration on the nape, that would just be the lighting and branches in the foreground as Charlie Spencer mentioned.

The more I learn from this forum, the more inclined I am to agree this would be Red-shouldered.

I would second Carolina Wren.

I can't necessarily vouch for sharpie, but I have a juvenile coopers that frequently helps himself to the house sparrows in my front yard. I am also in Ohio, and OPs bird looks quite a bit different to the coop I see regularly, so I would lean towards sharpie also. For reference, below is the Coopers in my yard this past Saturday (12/21). I also note the "bug eye" (which seems to be set a bit farther back on the head) and paler face from OP photo compared to my bird below. Not sure how helpful that is, but I struggle with sharpie vs coop as well, so always trying to learn from others as well.

Absolutely an American Kestrel. One of my favorite birds that I have yet to tick off my life list as well.

This bird was seen in Northeastern Ohio, in the Cuyahoga Valley National Park on 12/12. I believe it to be a swamp sparrow, which is a new sparrow to me for my list, but wanted to get confirmation. Unfortunately, the only photos I have are of the back/mantle and I did not get any shots of the breast/belly. Thoughts?

Would the Herring Gull tend to have legs this pink, and no black flecks on bill in winter? Certainly not disagreeing with you that it looks good for Herring, just looked to me more like Thayer's (which, I just found out was in 2017 re-classed as a subspecies of Iceland Gull, not it's own species outright as shown in my field guide).

Among several other gulls which I am confident were ring billed, I observed this other gull in northeast Ohio yesterday. Consulting my field guide, I want to say it is a Thayer's Gull, although the map in the guide doesn't show them in this specific area; however, it does show them in Lake Erie, which I am about 35 miles south of (straight line). My reasoning is that legs are pinker than a herring gull, and the black on the primaries would rule out Iceland gull. The red spot on the bill would rule out ring-billed (which is what this bird was flocking with). Any thoughts on this bird?

Thanks to you both for the help! I will add them to my checklist as White-throated and American Tree Sparrows. (Both of these are new species for me, at least since I started officially keeping lists!)

I was thinking this originally, but then I felt like I was seeing white wing bars which I believe are not usually present on swamp sparrows. I also realized I took one more photo about 3 minutes later, which may or may NOT be the same bird. It was in the same general location, maybe 20 yards further on in the shrubby-marsh. The third photo looks to me to be an American Tree Sparrow (noting the faint, but present to my eye, characteristic dark spot on the breast). If this additional photo is in fact the American Tree Sparrow, I would be more inclined to think perhaps the first two photos are as well, unless there is reason to think otherwise? This is the other photo:

Sorry I forgot that detail. Medina County, Northeast Ohio.

I was only able to take two very grainy photos of this bird today because it was at quite a distance in a bush that was in the middle of a marsh so I could not approach it. It looks to me to be some type of sparrow, but I am not sure which. Any ideas? Possibly a field sparrow?