Looks like this one is a Chipping Sparrow. Fairly common I guess, but had never seen one around the feeder as long as we've had it (a few years now).

Donna -- THANK YOU! We looked at the Junco, then the Towhee -- and then the Redstart. DH says it's the Redstart for sure. I see they are really travelers, migrating far and wide. Glad one migrated into our neighborhood. Sorry I didn't get to see him. Thanks again. Sue

Hi Rachel, Sorry - I live in eastern Massachusetts, 7 miles north of Boston and I live in a suburb with a little wooded area bordering my backyard, and a wildlife reservation and ponds about 1/2 a mile away (I am very fortunate!). It has been very cold here the last few days and we got our first dusting of snow yesterday. I have seen different kinds of birds here within a mile of the house - woodpeckers, hawks, swans, geese, the common feeder birds, we even have a heron who flies back and forth over our neighborhood every day - so we do get a variety of birds. We definitely do have house sparrows, but these little guys I saw yesterday were not those. They were just about a solid brown from where I could see. No striping or definitive marks. They just hopped around eating stray sunflower seeds. I've gone through photos of species, both genders and juvenile appearances, on the internet and in my books, and I am not sure what this bird was. The only even remote possibilities I could come up with were: field sparrow; junco; and female indigo bunting. If you have thoughts on this I would be most appreciative. Thanks, Donna P.S. Your last set of photos was, as always, astounding. Congrats on your new lifer!

Birds love bittersweet. I live in Iowa and it used to grow on many road side fences on the south side of the fence....but since the counties have taken to wholesale spraying the ditches it hs all but disappeared....along with the milk weed and the butterflies....and the roadside bonus of wild asparagus. You might consider leaving the bittersweet in the bird refuge.