Help ID this small bird - WA, USA (1 Viewer)

[agreach2]

Hi there. We recently moved to southwestern WA and put up a bird feeder and love spotting the new birds in this area. My wife and I can't seem to agree on what bird this is. We have seen multiple dark-eyed junco and then this one came. It's slightly bigger than the juncos. It is fairly dark on top, brown/gray.
I think what's throwing us off is the spotting on the breast/belly. It doesn't seem like a juvenile junko because of it's size, but from the references I've looked at adult dark-eye juncos don't generally have spotting like that. We are thinking either a variation of dark-eyed junco, fox sparrow, or maybe hermit thrush.
It likes to stay on the ground a lot and dig around, and eat from the feeder.




What do you all think? Dark-Eyed Junco ? Fox Sparrow ? or Hermit Thrush ?

Thanks in advance for any help for this beginner

 

[Microtus]

Welcome to the Forum, agreach. Your bird is a Fox Sparrow.

 

[agreach2]

Fox sparrow! Thank you so much for your reply. Is it a female? I guess a lot of the pictures I've seen in my books/online show them more colorful, especially on top but I guess this is a darker/browner variant.

Thank you

 

[Bird_Enthusiast]

Fox sparrow! Thank you so much for your reply. Is it a female? I guess a lot of the pictures I've seen in my books/online show them more colorful, especially on top but I guess this is a darker/browner variant.

Thank you

I think it's a Sooty Fox Sparrow

Fox Sparrows – one of the Northwest’s more confusing species - eBird Pacific Northwest

Four groups of Fox Sparrows occur in our region; few other parts of the country can claim that distinction. Three breed in the region and one is a scarce winter visitant.

ebird.org