With the large, pale, orangey-yellow or flesh-colored bill; the wingbars on dark wings; and the overall yellowish color, I?d say it?s a female and/or juvenile Western Tanager. Note that the bill is relatively way too long for goldfinch, which have a bill that is almost a perfect equilateral triangle pasted onto its face. And as you note, it looks decidedly larger than a goldfinch.

== Michael Hobbs
== Kirkland, WA
== http://www.marymoor.org/birding.htm
== http://www.marymoor.org/BirdBlog.htm
== birdmarymoor at frontier.com

From: Amy Hill
Sent: Tuesday, August 14, 2012 8:51 PM
To: Tweeters
Subject: [Tweeters] Bird "Quiz" - ID help

Tweeters,

I know I'm going to have egg on my face when this is all over, but this bird showed up today at the bath, and I'm having trouble with the ID. It's either the biggest Goldfinch I've ever seen, or it's something else.

This morning, I spotted a Wilson's Warbler working the maples. This afternoon, three birds like the one in question showed up very quickly and two flitted off. One took a bath. It was too close to the back door for me to open it without spooking the bird, so all these yukky shots are taken through the back glass door.

The birdbath measures 10.5" wide and is about 3" deep. Here's the link to the set on my flickr page: http://flic.kr/s/aHsjBpTiNA

Also seen today, same location, a flycatching WESTERN WOOD-PEWEE; an ear full of CEDAR WAXWINGS with at least two juveniles, sporting scruffy brown mottled breasts and stuffing themselves with cherries; some very vocal RED-BREASTED NUTHATCHES who visited our backyard birdbath for the first time; several adult and two juvenile DARK-EYED JUNCOs; STELLER'S JAY and one WILSON'S WARBLER.

For several days, I have been hearing a BROWN CREEPER singing his cute little, "Please give me some more cheese" song.


Amy Hill
Kalama, Washington
628 ft up in Cowlitz County
60stops2home at kalama.com


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