Oh, it's a female house finch. It's hard to know since you can't see her. She's hiding behind your feeder. So male house finch has a rosy red around his face and upper breast while female house finch has a plain grayish-brown with thick, blurry streaks and an indistinctly marked face. Now I know their difference.

Thanks everyone, terrene - We last saw Mr.B on Nov 29th. We never found any evidence of his demise, but he had been with us everyday for over 4 years and we believe he lived a long a natural life. He fathered 49 successful fledglings with Missy and we will never forget him. I've posted a special photo gallery in his memory here: http://kenn3d.smugmug.com/Nature/MrB/15996467_WUse9#1125423915_HTqVX Missy and Ben are a bonded pair now. Ben arrived here about Dec 12th and began courting her right away. They just fledged 5 babies from their first nest together, and Missy has 6 blue eggs under incubation in their 2nd nest as I write this. Life goes on, Kenn Here is a link that might be useful: In Memory of Mr.B

Wonderful photos. The photography on this forum has played no small part in inspiring interest in birding for me. I noticed you call St Louis home. We so enjoyed our time there last summer while watching the Cardinals,visiting the zoo and art museum and the rest of Forest Park. Mobot, Pappys Smokehouse and Delmar Blvd, It was great fun.

What lovely photos! The photo of the young bluebird is especially charming. I'm glad bluebird babies are being fledged somewhere successfully - the HOSPs took over our birdhouse and I had to plug it up. A sad ending to generations of families of Eastern bluebirds.