BN, that was really great description/comparison between the two. Thanks much for your input. Think you, Jan, and beegood are right on about it being a song sparrow! -mxyplx, maybe a new prescription is in order??? ;-) This guy isn't a Junco, but don't you just love those little guys? Never used to have them (or at least see them) around this particular area until a few years ago. Now they are all over the place and I am very glad of it! Think the ones around here may be the Oregon Junco... CMK

It looks like a Lincolns Sparrow to me, I had one visit me last year. Cute bird. Donna

Why would you want to let it survive just so it could go on to do the same thing in another birds nest? I would throw it out but you do what you want. Waiting for hatching could still mean death to the others if you don't see that it has hatched right away, it will always get the food whereas the others won't and will die. I am sure you will get other advice but I guess you can do what you want to do. Donna

Ah geez, you're right. It happens that I took pictures of an adult song sparrow and an adult (female) house finch this afternoon, also, and I managed to confuse myself. I've only seen a song sparrow go to the feeder once; most of the time it's on the ground under the feeder. I guess I just wanted it to be a song sparrow. It was the eye that misled me more than anything else. I expected it to be more pronounced in a house finch. But I just have looked more closely at the shape of the beak. I guess there's no way to fix a topic title here, is there. Thanks, Dave