That is definitely not a female HOSP. It is not a juvenile HOSP either. It is most certainly a recent fledge, but I cannot ID it. Hopefully someone with more experience than I can ID this baby bird.

I do not think that is a HOSP....The rule is if you are not 100% positive let it go. To me the colors (crown & beak) are off and the eye bar does not look to be a HOSP. Hard to tell with a young bird.

I disagree with everyone else, I think that looks exactly like a fledgling HOSP! Females and young have a dull eyestripe, I have seen enough fledglings and that sure looks like one!

Donna

I searched the sialis website, and it appears to me that that baby could be a Great Crested Flycatcher fledgling. Here's the page, with the photo at the bottom if you scroll down. nestling pictures on Sialis site

I got confirmation from a veteran bluebirder that both greenhouse resident birds are juvenile and/or female HOSP. The first picture I took didn't turn out very good--here are two more each of them. I suspect that the first one (the one pictured above) is a juvenile female, and the second set of pictures is juvenile male.

Thank you for your assistance! I live on eleven acres in Nebraska and have a large number of HOSP that mob my suet log and am trying to make my property more hospitable for indigenous species.

Kendra in the link you posted all the photos are of baby HOSP, it just says that you could confuse the GCFC from the back, that is if you are looking at just the back. Like ralleia's source said, these are indeed baby HOSP, you can also tell they are all babies (fledglings) by the lips by the beak, where they beak meets the face.

Donna

Thanks so much for pointing that out Donna. I must have misunderstood the information. I would have sworn the bird in the first picture was not a HOSP. But I have never seen one that young. Since they obviously aren't allowed to nest here, I have only seen ones that fly in from other places. The one in the top photo must be younger (or perhaps a runt). The ones in the lower photos certainly look like young HOSPs to me. Anyone please feel free to correct me if I'm wrong, but don't male and female juveniles look the same? The ones I've seen all look identical, and I was of the understanding that they don't look different from each other until after their first molt?

The top photo is actually the same bird as the first two photos in the latter posting. It was the first time I've ever tried to photograph a bird while holding the bird in one hand and operating a camera with the other. She/he had twisted her body for balance and the tail was hidden from view. I figured out how to hold the birds straight and level on my second try.

I don't know if male/female juveniles look identical--perhaps another bluebirder can comment. The second bird just looked a bit stockier--the two certainly look a *little* different. Since they're going to be my decoys (I read somewhere that juveniles work well), perhaps I will be able to watch them mature.

100% House sparrows!!!