Currently in status “Disputed”, but trending heavily toward Dark-eyed Junco, is this image, #6320, by bahiker:
But compare these three images of juncos on the same railing, by users comat0se, stimpycat, and tim clemson:
To my eye, the bird in the first image is too small for a junco, and has the wrong silhouette; it’s tail is too short, it’s head and neck too compact. It looks, in short, like a chickadee.
It’s strongly backlit by the morning sun reflecting off the railing (the photo was taken at 7:12 a.m.), making it hard to see any markings, but given my pre-existing leanings toward chickadee, I can almost convince myself that there’s some sort of contrast-y pattern visible about the head, which again would be hard to reconcile with this being a junco.
What do y’all think?
I know you know I disagree. Totally a junco. The head looks small because it’s looking straight down, not forward, and thus has a more “compact” look. Despite the back-lit, I can see a strong contrast between a dark “hood” and the rest of the body. A chickadee wouldn’t give this type of contrast.
Heh. Yes, well, I’m definitely swimming against the tide on this one. But I’m going to be keeping my eye open for well-lit images of both birds at that corner of the deck, to see if I can get a better comparison shot on the size and shape question.