New Yard Birds ~ Pine Siskin, House Finch or Sparrow?

After weeks of seeing the same old yard birds (Red-breasted & White-breasted Nuthatches, Downy Woodpecker, and Black-capped Chickadees), it's nice to get some new birds in the yard. I posted recently about the Brown Creeper that was new to the bunch. A few days ago, a sweet little brown and white streaked bird joined the yard gang. My first thought was Pine Siskin, but it is really difficult to positively I.D. a nondescript small brown and white streaked bird.  In the birding community these are called Little Brown Jobs (LBJ's).  I researched the Pine Siskin on my iBird app and in my bird field guides.  Clues that led me to to the I.D. were the pointy beak and notched tail. I did not however, see any yellow on the wings or base of tail, but it is not always visible on a perched bird. I recall the first time I saw Pine Siskins at my feeder, it was a siskin in flight photo that cinched the I.D. for me. Without seeing the tell tale yellow, I could not be 100% on the identity of Pine Siskin.

Cut to the next day, when much to my surprise I see a spry little red-headed bird scoping out the balcony feeder.  I did a double-take... Yes, I DID just see a red-headed bird, a new bird in the yard!  Yippee!  Now this one I was sure on the identity, it was a male House Finch.  But now I was more confused about the previous day's bird. Could the Pine Siskin have been a female House Finch? I spent some time consulting the field guides, Googling images of  Pine Siskins and House Finches and concluded it was indeed a Pine Siskin. Later I spotted a little bird outside the window in the neighbors Lilac bush.  It too was a little brown job.  But this one, I knew right away was a Song Sparrow, by the brown spot on it's belly.  But without the spot, all three birds look very similar.

Check out the updated lists on the new Bird Lady's Lists page. Here is the cute little Pine Siskin with Mr. White, the resident White-breasted Nuthatch.

Pine Siskin & White-breasted Nuthatch
JPEG edit

Pine Siskin & White-breasted Nuthatch
RAW edit

Photography Talk

Not the greatest of pics. I'm still trying to perfect shooting from behind the sliding glass door, with the tripod setup. It creates a less-than-ideal back lighting situation, and I just haven't got the settings down.  I did some reading online and in my camera manual and set my camera for spot metering, which should help when the background is brighter than the subject like it is in my balcony feeder setup. I will test it out tomorrow.

For the above pic, I was shooting in Shutter Priority mode with the shutter speed @ 1/256, f/6.5 This is an edit of the RAW photo, with some post processing done in Photoshop Elements 7. Honestly, I have been trying to do more of the RAW editing, but I'm not really happy with the results. Obviously, I still have lots to learn!

~ Sherrie (Bird Lady)