Birdie num num, part 2 – a Very Special Visitor

I swear this wont turn into a bird blog, but since the feeder is new and exciting and I am home to enjoy it..well…

My hope was to get some fun varieties in the yard, and today has been a jackpot day. Since I finished in my bedroom yesterday…oh yeah…here’s that set of pics..solid day of work to get this done:

ok, back to the birds. So this morning I cleaned the windows for optimum viewing & picture taking. Once I was back inside for good and the birds knew it was all clear to resume feasting, there were new visitors immediately:

Now, I know this looks quite a bit like the Rufous Crowned Sparrow (see how hard this ID thing can get?), but even though the head looks similar, it’s the super streaky breast that differentiates this one:

Hah – caught him with a seed in his mouth! Soon after this guy flew off, I spotted the one I was hoping for:

Isn’t he pretty? I just love their shocking yellow bills & perfectly coiffed stripey crowns. The female has the same yellow bill, but a duller version of the crown. Like the Rufous Crowned & Song Sparrow, these guys are ground dwellers and take to the area under the feeder looking for spill over seeds. The House Finches still dominate the feeder itself. Heh, just noticed there’s a female finch tucked up in the tree behind the pretty sparrow in the picture. That’s the way it is back there now – dozens of birds all over in the trees, on the feeder, on the fence, and on the ground at any given time.

So while I was enjoying the ground show, I still keep an eye up on the trees in case of a warbler or two. Then I saw this:

Not a great picture but it was literally there for maybe a minute so all I could do was point and shoot and hope! I’m just glad it turned it’s head so that I had that back view like that because that’s how I got to the ID. There’s a shot in my bird book of the back of a Nuttall to show the unique pattern since there’s another variety otherwise quite similar that also crosses territories of course! I thought I had heard a woodpecker in those trees before, but never good a clear view to identify it. So today was a major jackpot!

And now I have to go out and refill the feeder already. I guess pigs do fly!