At our feeder on the east side of Vashon Island Friday morning about 9:30 AM we had a group of five or six birds at our feeder that I'd not seen before. They were smaller than towhees and larger than sparrows, with dark wings with strong white bars, a rounded head and beak that appeared to be tan or yellow. The body was lighter than the wings, but they flew off before I could make out what color. It might have been dusky gold or red. They startled, flew up together into the nearby cedar, then flew away. My wife saw them, too, and confirmed that she saw the prominent white bars on the dark wings. Although they were in the shade with the morning sun on the cedar behind them, the white bars stood out strongly. It appeared that the white bars covered about a quarter of the folded wing vertically and maybe as much as a third of the horizontal length. I noticed them at first because of the strong white bars on the dark wings.

Looking through all my books, the only one I could see that looked like it is a White Winged Crossbill.

Gus Schairer