They are nature's garbage men! I live near a park with mature trees that is sandwiched at the intersection of two busy roads. The turkey vultures settle in on a garage roof across from the park a block from the intersection and just have a buffet! They are magnificent.

looks like a female bobwhite quail to me...

I agree with the squirrel nest - I have a lot of them and I've seen a squirrel running between them: A squirrel bustled up and down the trees at sunrise - it looked like it was checking the various nests to see who was awake and up. The trees are on top of the coastal bank overlooking Cape Cod Bay. Claire

That's a male so-called "English house sparrow"(Passer domesticus), an invasive species that is neither English nor a true sparrow, but an African weaver finch. These prolific birds are very messy and destroy nests of many cavity-nesting native bird species in order to build their own bulky nests in their places.