Thanks, BN, for the explanation. It does make sense, and I see House Finches fairly often here, mostly in the winter. I can see the House Finch in the body and head, it was just the tail that looked wrong, but worn feathers are reasonable. I just found this photo of half of a male House Finch from May 22, 2012, and the tail also looks darkish and long. I rarely see Purple Finches but I found an old photo from Jan. 4, 2009 of what I think was a male Purple Finch with a similar back view. The color is definitely in the raspberry range. Sometimes there are advantages to keeping way too many photos on your computer. Thanks again - that mystery photo was really annoying me. Claire

Thank you all very much. It is decided then, the feeder stays! I looked up pictures of both the downey and hairy and agree it looks like a hairy woodpecker more. Getting a decent photo of a bird for identification is considerably more difficult than trees. Even my wife's 10mp point and click leaves a little to be desired. One of my neighbor's Bradford Pears has been attacked by some woodpecker. It is the only tree in either of our yards I have seen with damage and being a tree forum regular I have grown to dislike Bradfords anyway lol.

Absolutely Lesser Goldfinch. By the way, I don't know how much time you spent looking at warbler pics, but you would have saved yourself that effort by noting the bill shape: warblers have much thinner bills. Bill shape and size is often a good clue to point you in the right direction; bright colour patterns you'll likely remember without trying, but the bill really needs to be looked at (unless we're talking about a toucan or spoonbill etc). Just a friendly hint. -O-

That's looking more and more like the Teneza. Yes, it has small thorns, hardly enough to stick you and they are widely spaced. This photo of my younger tree shows the texture of the bark and the thorns ... New leaves on the younger tree ... The dark green tree in the center of the photo is my more mature tree which is about 18 ft. tall at 12 or more years old ... It can get larger, but is fairly show growing. I saw one on the south side of town that was about 35 ft tall. One of the nicest things about them is they keep their leaves during the winter which is very unusual for this type of tree. The leaves are slightly more sparse, but that's all. Also the blooms are very fragrant. They produce long seed pots which split open as they dry. Is that a bean pod on the lower left of your last photo?