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Just now, Hasan said:

I'm only on my phone and I'll check when I get home, but it looks a little suspect to me. The tail looks suspiciously short for spizella and I can't rule out goldfinch.

I think the tail is angling towards the camera, making it appear shorter.

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28 minutes ago, Birding Boy said:

Yeah It’s certainly a Field Sparrow.


Why isn't it an immature WCSP that is delayed in its prealternate molt? Yes, that would be a huge delay, but FISP is really rare and definitive evidence is required for such. While it looks like a sparrow, certainly, it's a bad picture with the subject at an odd angle and with, it seems, different parts of its body at different angles.

Edited by Tony Leukering
clarification
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9 minutes ago, Tony Leukering said:

While it looks like a sparrow, certainly

Why?

On my laptop now- this is definitely a female Goldfinch. The bill is thick and conical- wrong for any sparrow- and the bird is yellowish and lacking the correct facial patterns. Finally, the short tail is much too short for spizella- even being generous with how much the angle conceals length the bird is mostly viewed from the side and Field Sparrows have a very long tailed look to them

Edited by Hasan
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4 minutes ago, Tony Leukering said:


Why isn't it an immature WCSP that is delayed in its prealternate molt? Yes, that would be a huge delay, but FISP is really rare and definitive evidence is required for such. While it looks like a sparrow, certainly, it's a bad picture with the subject at an odd angle and with, it seems, different parts of its body at different angles.

Yeah, I definitely shouldn’t have leapt to conclusions with only one photo available. Sorry about that @Bird-BoysIt seems to have a FISP like face pattern, but as you said WCSP is tough to eliminate. 

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Just now, Hasan said:

The bill is thick and conical- wrong for any sparrow

The true shape is, for me, impossible to be sure of, as the head is at an angle to the plane of the photo. We cannot know how much it is turned, with the more it is turned toward us further disguising the length.

2 minutes ago, Hasan said:

the bird is yellowish

I'm not convinced. While the lit portion of the underparts appears yellow, it is not all that much yellower than the lit portions of the twigs

 

4 minutes ago, Hasan said:

the short tail

The tail is held at an angle to the body such that it is the closest portion of the bird to the camera. That angle foreshortens the true length.

However, we are in agreement that this photo does not make a definitive case for an ID of FISP.

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11 minutes ago, Hasan said:

Why?

On my laptop now- this is definitely a female Goldfinch. The bill is thick and conical- wrong for any sparrow- and the bird is yellowish and lacking the correct facial patterns. Finally, the short tail is much too short for spizella- even being generous with how much the angle conceals length the bird is mostly viewed from the side and Field Sparrows have a very long tailed look to them

Agreed, American Goldfinch. 

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