ML49001461

Observation details

This bird showed up at a private residence in Trophy Hill and had been coming in most days since it was first noticed on Feb. 10, 2013. Greg Cook alerted us to the bird's presence and invited us to come and look for it. After waiting for approximately 20 minutes, the bird finally appeared. I obtained several hundred photographs at extremely close range and we enjoyed excellent looks. All field marks were visible. The bird was a small finch with a notched tail. The primary extension was fairly long, extending back past the undertail coverts. The upperparts were mostly grayish brown, and the wings had two wing bars. The cap was small and bright red. The breast had a pale wash of red across it, extending onto the sides of the face below the eye, where it was faint. The flanks were thickly streaked. The throat, lores, and forehead were black. The back of the head and nape were a dull but dark brown and streaked with darker brown, just like the rest of the upperparts. The lower bellow and undertail coverts appeared white. The bill was sharply pointed (the culmen was straight) and dull orange in color. The upper mandible was tinged with smudgy black, especially on the top, perhaps indicating the bird was younger than a full adult? The bird had a thin and broken eye ring and the sides of the face behind the eye had very fine streaking.