Aidan B

Thanks, Started looking even closer and started to feel the same. Don't have much experience with grebes besides Western and Clark's as they are the only common grebes near me besides pied-billed.

Hoping to confirm this is as a red-necked grebe. Seen on September fifth among the company of many dabbling ducks and Clark's grebes. Thanks for the help

I have no idea how I blanked on such an easy bird, I guess since I haven't seen one recently I just kind of assumed they were scaup. This makes more sense as well as they were in a small pond instead of on a lake or other large body of water where I usually see scaup. Thanks for the help with the identification

Had a crazy encounter yesterday night, I was fishing at a local pond and had a two scaup swim right up to me. Hoping I can confirm whether they are greater or lesser, although that may not be possible. My guess is lesser based on the inland location and the fact that the crown seems to be in the back of the head in the photos. Sorry for the low quality photos but they where the best I could get with my phone. How I wished I had my good camera when I saw them. Thanks for the help with the identification.

Thanks for the replies, it looks like everyone agrees that they are brewers sparrows, and feel that I agree as well after reading the responses and article. I sure have learned a lot from this, and it made me a better birder. Thanks you all for the help with this identification.

Thanks for the kind replies, I'm not sure if it will help, but I do have additional photos of most of these birds if needed as they were fairly cooperative and I went looking for clay colored and brewer's. I fairly certain that there was a clay colored hanging around as several fairly knowledgeable birders reported one here the day before and later that day if that's of any help

I went looking for a recent clay colored sparrow that has recently been seen in my area and found a big flock of spizella, but I cant tell the brewers and clay colored apart. I have no experience with either of these species but I have my guesses. here are my guesses Clay colored on the right, brewer's on the left? second photo shows the suspected brewer's. My guess as to why it's brewer's is because there seems to be a little streaking in the nape, but I am not sure how much Is within expected limits for clay color. I believe that both of these are brewers, although the bird on the left looks quiet a bit like some photos I found of field sparrows, however, I don't believe it is. I suspect this is an immature brewers based on all the streaking on the underparts. I suspect this is a clay colored sparrow based on the clean white throat, possible white crown stripe and a clean grey nape.