I hope someone can help with this one.

When I first went out into the kitchen this morning (approx 9:15 am,
9-17-96), the two feeders that hang outside my third-floor apartment
window (near Greenlake) were covered with house sparrows and house
finches, as usual. But I noticed one bird was different. I observed as
much as I could about it, but eventually more sparrows came and forced it
out of the feeder, although it ignored them as long as it could.

It was slightly smaller than a house sparrow. The body seemed to be a
sort of uniform beige with a hint of glowing orange in it. There was no
eye stripe and the head was the same coloration as the body. The wings
were blackish in the lower two thirds, with a brown bar of medium
thickness, and perhaps lesser bars farther out. I didn't see it flying --
only sitting in the tray at the bottom of the feeder, with mostly its back
and side to me. It didn't seem as skittish as the sparrows. I didn't get
a good look at the beak, since I was trying to memorize the body colors.
But it's possible the beak was light colored. I don't recall what the
shape of the beak was.

One final note, I believe that I may have seen a similar bird perhaps a
month ago in Seward Park. It was poking and rumaging amongst a pile of
railroad ties and rocks along the main crest trail there. It didn't seem
to be afraid of me at all. It would go into little crevasses and holes
and come out and hop along, looking occassionally at me. At one point, it
ate a worm or larva or something. I had originally stopped at that point,
because I heard its cheep in the low bushes by the trail. It was a single
chirp given at longish intervals. In my notes, I called it a pale golden
brown in color. At the time I was so facinated by the bird that I
completely forgot to look at the wings or beak or anything. But the body
did seem very round, with not much neck, even when it was hopping around.
It was not with any other birds.

I'm sorry I can't be more detailed about this. But I've searched through
the Peterson guild and I can't find any match at all. Perhaps it's been
at my feeder before, but the house sparrows have such widely varying
coloration and changes over the year, that I might have just passed over
it. I am, clearly, just a beginning birder. But I'm grateful that there
is a place where I can submit a gonzo observation and have some hope of
getting an ID.

Bob Mauritsen
rhm at ms.washington.edu