ID Mystery - Piedmont North Carolina, USA (1 Viewer)

[sbarnhardt]

I've been trying to put my finger on a bird I'm seeing a lot of on our feeders. So far, with no success.

It's a slender but longish bodied bird. Head is rounded, small to medium sized. In my perception of color, it's either a light ivory, or muted, dusty white. It has some dim slightly darker markings on it's back with the belliy almost white. Lighter in either case.

It seems that I see them when I also see House Finches on, or around, the feeders. This makes me wonder if perhaps it's an immature House Finch, but I've found nothing like it in my Silbey's guide, here on BF/Opus, Audobon, and/or general Googling. So, now I'm asking for thoughts and suggestions, etc. of what I'm dealing with. Anything you might have to suggest will be greatly appreciated.

 

[gsimonel]

I wonder if it's a leucistic House Finch or House Sparrow, sort of like an albino mutation.

 

[sbarnhardt]

I wonder if it's a leucistic House Finch or House Sparrow, sort of like an albino mutation.

I failed to mention this before, but it seems like I see a fair number of them. ?? Frequently, but no always, in the company of the House Finches.

 

[sbarnhardt]

In my "looking and searching", I came upon this page from Cornell's "Birds of the World" House Finch pages.

House Finch - Haemorhous mexicanus - Birds of the World

Species accounts for all the birds of the world.

birdsoftheworld.org

On this page, there is/was a picture of a female. The head of this female is very similar to these birds I'm trying to ID. The coloring and marking of this image is markedly different. I find myself wanting to think what I've seen are immature House Finches??

 

[Butty]

Immature house finch looks the same as adult female.
It would help if you confirmed the birds' overall size and bill-shape relative to known house finches alongside them.

 

[rkj]

Even a poor photo would help a great deal.