Hello Tweets:

This is a request for help in identifying a bird that was at my feeder today
(Sunday) about 5:00 p.m., here in downtown Kent. The feeder is a thistle
feeder of the upright variety, that is, the birds do not have to upend
themselves on the perch bar to feed. The feeder has Niger Thistle, and is
frequented primarily by American Goldfinches and House Finches, with an
occasional Black-capped Chickadee dropping by (but they seem satisfied with
the 2 black sunflower seed feeders that are nearby).

The bird on the feeder that I would like to identify looked almost like a
House Finch except, what color it had was light yellow. The first feature was
a yellow patch on the crown with yellow "eyebrows" (stripes above the eyes
that extended from near the bill to the back of the head, with the upper
portion of these brows blending into the patch on the crown. The second
feature was a yellow rump. There was another bird on the feeder at the same
time as this one, and I would identify it as a female House Finch. I was able
to see the two of them together and the bird with yellow looked identical in
size and general appearance to what I would call a female House Finch, except
for the colors and markings that I have described. A bird, very similar to
the yellow marked bird, was ground feeding at my place a couple of months ago,
but my look was very brief before it flew off. I watched the bird today for a
couple of minutes, then got my binoculars to get a better view, and when I put
the binocs on it, it and the "female House Finch" flew off.

While living in Spokane a few years ago, I had a globe feeder with black
sunflower seeds that primarily attracted House Finches, but there were a few
birds whose colors were light orange, and almost yellow, yet they otherwise
looked like the House Finches. I don't know if that was simply a local
variation or not. I think the most distinctive feature of the bird I saw
today was the distinctive eyebrow, which was not apparent in the birds I saw
in Spokane.

I don't see anything resembling this bird in "A Guide to Field Identification
- Birds of North America", Robbins and others, or "Birds of Seattle" by
Fisher. Could this have simply been a variation of a House Finch?

Jim Brewster
Kent, Washington
BrewsPad at aol.com

"I know you believe you understand what you think I said,
but I am not sure you realize that what you heard is not
what I meant." Alan Greenspan - Federal Reserve Board Chairrman