We were having fun this morning trying to figure out the following “mystery bird”. rafa got a shot at 6:10 a.m. in the dead tree (which really seems to be a magnet for great birds):
Later, it showed up several times on a particular plant just above the water fountain. At first I was thinking it might be a Myiarchus flycatcher. But when it came back and we got some good looks at it (including seeing it feeding on the plant’s seeds) I abandoned that idea pretty quickly.
Here are the two best shots I got (I kept a few others, too, and I haven’t seen yet what the other users got, since their shots are still embargoed):
I’m pretty comfortable calling this a female Painted Bunting. There’s a delicate beauty to the markings of female buntings that I really like. They’re not as showy as the males, but I like looking at them.
Update: Here are my favorites of the images other users got. anneelizabeth got this cute shot:
And birdbrain got this great action photo:
Yes, I classified all mine as Painted Bunting. It really had us going though!