Another possibility is the American Tree Sparrow which looks a lot like the Chipping Sparrow but has a breast spot. Where are you located? From the All About Birds site: "The easiest species to confuse with American Tree Sparrow is Chipping Sparrow, but their ranges don't overlap much in winter (the only time most people are likely to see American Tree Sparrows). If you are north of roughly Kansas in the winter, American Tree Sparrows are much more likely than Chipping Sparrows; south of this line Chipping Sparrows are more common. In winter, Chipping Sparrows have a less rufous (reddish-brown) cap than American Tree Sparrows. Look for a black line through the eyes of Chipping Sparrows; in American Tree Sparrows that line is rufous, the same color as its crown. Look for American Tree SparrowâÂÂs distinctly bicolored bill - dark on top, yellowish below. Chipping Sparrow's bill is often dark or pinkish. Song Sparrows are heavily streaked on the breast, whereas American Tree Sparrow has a plain breast, sometimes with a single dark spot. Field Sparrows have a pink bill and a white ring around the eye. Lark Sparrows have a much more complex head pattern including rufous on the cheeks." The tree sparrow is a winter bird in many regions where the chipping sparrow doesn't winter over. Here in southeastern MA I see tree sparrows all winter long but no chipping sparrows. This one was seen in January a few years ago in Plymouth, MA: Claire This post was edited by claire on Mon, May 6, 13 at 10:23

It's a bit hard to tell from the picture (I'm not getting much color, it could be my monitor), but if the legs were yellow, it could be a green heron. They are one of my favorite water birds :)

Oh, yea he's hanging out by onions here. The strawberries are off camera to the right, and the tomatoes are in small planters on either side of the planter he's on now. Those are really the only fruit we have that we've had trouble with; we have watermelon and cantaloupe but they birds ever bother them. could be sparrows, we have a lot of those in the neighborhood. this species is the only one that seems to actually stick around in the garden, thought. i probably should have mentioned that I live in south eastern PA.

There is bird netting secured across the entire top of each bed. The bird netting also descends maybe a third of the way down each side and is attached tightly to the sides of the "cage" beds to make sure there aren't any places for birds to get through. Do you mean that the top coverage should be heftier than it is now (like with chicken wire or hardware cloth instead of bird netting)? Is one inch chicken wire too large to keep birds out? Does this mean that the pest is likely birds? Thank you for your response!