Saturday, November 7, 2015

Strange Bird at the Feeder

   It always pays to take a peek at the feeders in the backyard whenever I have a chance. You never know what might be there and it is really exciting when something you see is obviously unusual.
    Well that happened recently. Below are a series of not great photos of a bird that at first looked like it might be albino but it does show some color in the plumage. It looks like it's an aberrant House Finch but I would love to hear what folks think. Saw it two days but it hasn't been present (at least when I was looking) for several days now.
 This, unfortunately, might be the best photo of the three posted. The next two give a little different angle of the bird.
Of course the other possibility is an escaped cage bird but I'm not going there.
All thoughts are appreciated.

7 comments:

Dennis Meyer said...

The bird's head does not have that House Finch look
& the beak appears just a tad bit smaller than that
of a House Finch. It looks more like an escaped
canary?



Unknown said...

Leucistic House Finch. Look past feather color to body size, shape, bill characteristics, etc. Cool sighting.
Father Tom Margevičius

Noelle said...

I agree that it almost looks like an albino (or partial albino) house finch, which seems to match somewhat to the images I found on google image search. Weird that the wings appear lighter than the body, though.

Jim Ryan said...

I'd say house finch is a good guess, Roger.

Minnesota Birdnerd said...

Well, not 100% agreement on House Finch but I still think that's my best guess.

RLJACK said...

Beady eye also good for house finch. Looks like a house finch to me.

amr said...

Given the different apparent color on the wings and tail, wouldn't an American Goldfinch be more likely? They're also more likely to eat while perched sideways like that.