This is the first time I have seen him in our yard. He was so easy to photograph. He just kept coming back for seeds every couple minutes. He either has a BIG appitite or there are more than one here. He was also easy to spot because he kept climbing down the tree head first. Here are a couple more photos of him...

Dear theresa, I agree this is not a wren whch has very tipped up tail and wings. I agree I think it is an immature sparrow, sizing up a place for a nest perhaps? Jacqui

I know it's not the same thing but There was a report on the Pa birdlist just today about something very similar Here it is copy and pasted PA Birders: Last weekend (October 7-9) there was a significant bird kill of at least 142 birds at Quehanna in Clearfield County. Several of the birds were sent in to the Penn State Animal Diagnostic (Veterinary) Lab for analysis. Those results are back (at least interim results) and we feel that it is appropriate to publicly announce the results. Some may be concerned about the cause of this kill (news of which is now being spread by rumor), so we are trying to clear the air before it gets murky. The interim diagnosis is that the birds died of trauma (basically, they collided with hard objects). To quote, in part, from the interim diagnostic report: There was fresh bruising evident in the subcutaneous tissues of thorax, neck, & skull of specimens. Some had hemorrhage in trachea, lung(s). A few had an indented area in the skull. The birds had abundant body fat, and otherwise were in good general body condition. The gizzards were empty. Preliminary histopathology results show no significant lesions in the major organs. The bacterial cultures that have been completed are negative. More tests will be made, but all indications are that this fairly large kill was due to collisions with buildings and perhaps wires and other objects in a compound deep in the woods of North-central PA. I inspected > 100 of these birds (but not the ones sent in to the Lab) and can give you a partial list of species that died in this event: Red-eyed Vireo 1 Gray-cheeked Thrush 2 Northern Parula 1 Magnolia Warbler 4 Cape May Warbler 1 Black-throated Blue Warbler 4 Blackburnian Warbler 2 Bay-breasted Warbler 2 Blackpoll Warbler 106 American Redstart 2 Ovenbird 2 Common Yellowthroat 1 Unknown (well-decayed) Warbler ~8 Scarlet Tanager 1 (plus additional birds we didn't see) Most specimens were very wet with matted plumage, etc., and some quite deteriorated. The weather conditions of this event are "classic" for a fall bird collision scenario: a decreasingly low cloud horizon accompanying an advancing low front (and ground fog) that followed clear skies associated with a high front. The birds probably left their day roosts with stars over their heads and encountered more clouds and then dense cover and fog toward dawn as they flew south into a rainstorm that covered the state over the first part of the weekend. This was a fairly major collision event at a remote location with a fairly "low profile." No tall buildings, some power and telephone lines, and only a fairly small tower at site. An almost residential profile in a forested area. None of the buildings were more than 2 stories tall. Lights at the facility may have attracted the birds into the compound in an otherwise unlit forested region and brought them into collision hazards that they otherwise would not encounter. I suggest that there may have been other (unobserved) collision events in Pennsylvania this week at sites not monitored by people. The low cloud ceiling today may continue conditions for avian mortality on human structures. (People at this site collected the birds and made them available to PGC for testing and identification.) As many of you are aware, this bird list is a set of southbound, long-distance, Neotropical migrant songbirds, mostly of boreal origins. The Blackpoll Warblers (the majority of specimens) were bound for South America via the United States (with a probabe ultimate origin somewhere in the conifer forests of Canada) in the longest migration of any songbird in the world, including the longest transoceanic flight of any songbird (over the Atlantic from NE USA to NW South America). Unfortunately, the trips of these birds ended here in PA. Dan Brauning and I would like to thank the staff at the PGC North Central Regional Office and the Columbia County Gamelands crew for providing assistance to this effort. Douglas A. Gross PGC Wildlife Biologist - Endangered Birds Specialist 144 Winters Road, Orangeville, PA 17859 570-458-4109 dogross@state.pa.us

Hello Goat, thanks for the reply. I have Japanese Maples, Eastern Redbuds, Helabores, Elephant Ears, a few potted Evergreen trees( C.B. Spruce Serbian Spruce), Hyacinth bean plants, Jap. Iris, Most trees are on the small side. Looking for dwarf evergreen trees and unusual trees(isn't everybody).