Good Morning everyone. I placed a call to the rescue center this morning and left a msg...waiting for a reply I checked out the pic of the bobwhite and it doesn`t match but the pic of the nothern rough-tailed swallow is very close. The differences are that it does not have the black band across the eyes and it doesn`t have the needle like ending to the tail feathers but the overall shape, size and color are very close. My initial thought when I say the bird was that it was a swallow because of the wings. I looked this bird up on google and it is on the rare bird site. We sit at night and watch these little guys dance throught the sky in groups. This year is the first year that I have seen these so they must be new to our area or the population is growing. I live in the heart of a large city across the river from Detroit MI. I will keep looking on google and will post if/when I get an answer from the rescue center. Well I just got a call from the rescue center and the little guy did not make it.....:( She said that he may have been bleeding interally...all we saw was the bleeding from his foot....may have been attacked by a cat??? She did ID him for me and he was a Chimney Swift. I google this and the pic is exactly what he looked like. Thank you everyone for helping. Louise

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-

Swifts are on the decline too because the types of chimneys they require are seen less and less in homes. The town nearby is quite old with lots of Victorian age homes and older and you see swifts frequently. We used to get all sorts of birds down our chimneys here (1820s house with fireplaces in each room) and swifts were one of them. I left them be, pulled the glass doors shut and usually the parent fed them and they disappeared when they got old enough, prolly back up the chimney. This is bizarre, but we had a brick loose in our original kitchen hearth and before we repaired it, somehow starling babies ended up in the adjoining cabinets in my linen drawer. Don't ask me how! I did evict them! We have even had ducks drop down the chimney. LOL. We do not use the woodburning fireplaces anymore and the chimney are all capped. You can search the net for instructions on how to build swift towers to replace the chimneys they used to use more easily. They are insect eaters. Good, good birds to have around.

I think this would be a very difficult ID without a picture. Could you try to get a picture of this bird? A white dot on the breast may or may not be an identifying mark. It could be a HOSP with a few white feathers. It would really help to get a picture to see the shape, beak, leg color, etc.