Russ - 8-21-2011 at 05:00 PM
This is a new one for me. He's almost twice as large as the finch or sparrow I normally have around.
With the smaller birds...
Joelt - 8-21-2011 at 05:19 PM
It might be some kind of grosbeak but that is just a guess from looking at a book I have for the sierras. I left my good book down in Baja. The
smaller ones look like the same kind of bird just smaller.
Bird
tehag - 8-21-2011 at 05:51 PM
Maybe brown-headed cowbird.
Santiago - 8-21-2011 at 09:24 PM
Russ, Just my guess, but I think it is molting so maybe hard to tell.
AmoPescar - 8-23-2011 at 10:33 PM
Hi Russ...
Don't have time to look...but here's a good source for bird info.
http://www.allaboutbirds.org/Page.aspx?pid=1189
Miguelamo 
Russ - 8-24-2011 at 07:14 AM
Thanks AmoPescar, I went through a lot of birds there and still come up short of an ID. That one bird has now brought 6 other friends. Their habits
are a lot like a black bird. They are staying in their own group of 7 and are voracious feeders. They don't bother the other birds and scratch up the
dirt to find seeds.
goldhuntress - 8-24-2011 at 08:35 AM
I posted the last pic on the Cornell Lab of Ornithology FB page asking for ID and the reply was Brown-headed Cowbird, molting into adult plumage. So,
looks like the BN resident expert was right!
wessongroup - 8-24-2011 at 09:11 AM
Thanks for the ID.. .huntress... yep, there are some that really make a living with some of that stuff one learns in college... years ago... thanks
for a source which hadn't thought even thought about...
And thanks Russ, for some really neat stuff going on around your house... now ya have that "wind thing" under control ... hope it all got cleaned up
ok and your back to normal... back putting around with Bubba ...
Russ - 8-24-2011 at 10:45 AM
tehag, You know your stuff! goldhuntress, Thanks for the follow up. All the photos of the brown headed cow bird looked too dark to me. Maybe it's a
southern adaptation?