-I'm wondering if we have something different here? The habit of this bird hanging around with a flock of sparrows may be a clue; I wonder if perhaps we have a "leucistic" male house sparrow; the "Bird Lady of Aquitaine" sighted a partially leucistic American Robin on May 7; the color pattern, size and habit seem off for a bunting; here is a shot of a leucistic male House sparrow: (https://order.secure.myphotoclub.com/galleries/image/6792 )

In my personal opinion, I have to concur with Jim on this one. I was skeptical at first of the Snow Bunting ID, but I think Jim hit the nail on the head with this ID. While this bird is quite similar to the Snow Bunting, it lacks the solid color on the back, and has a black nape. Strange bird we have here, but I congratulate both Jim on that outstanding ID (how many people have "leucistic male house sparrow" on the tip of their tongue?), and Christiensmom for the picture.

I am thinking Jim may be right but due to inexperience I cannot match it up with anything else. The little guy hovers over the ground, flys weird and spends all day going from feeder to home. Cannot see exactly where he heads after feeding. He doesn't act like a sparrow. And seen with a sparrow is a little larger and does not resemble a sparrow. He is also changing colour. Will keep trying to get a better picture of him. Although he is in the yard constantly he is very hard to photograph, he moves alot. I appreciate any info on him as he is definately a rarity to me.

One thing to definitely pay close attention to is the beak. Buntings have a very short, cone shaped beak, whereas the house sparrow has a long, stout beak. The Snow Bunting call was a good one, because a bird like this is an absolute rarity. However, I think that Jim's epiphany IDed it.

-this is a very interesting discourse and all of us will analyse it from every angle; "christiensmom's behavior observations are super! ("doesn't act like a sparrow; flies weird, does not resemble a sparrow, spends all day going from feeder to home, a little larger than a sparrow"); perhaps with a little time and more pictures, we can come up with a solid answer! :o))

Ha, hopefully this won't turn out like the Cooper's hawk/ Sharpie debate, right Jim?

He is very hard to get a picture of as he likes to hide on the other side of the feeder. Have found his home, it is in a bird house behind the neighbours. He is still going from feeder to home all day but yesterday I did see him feeding another bird, which was slightly smaller and coloured a light grey/brown. I am tending to lean towards "leucistic" as mentioned earlier. We had been calling it "Whitie" but are now thinking "Micheal" would be more suitable, lol.

-keep an eye on our subject and the one he is feeding; perhaps the leucistic bird is feeding a "normal" and identifiable young one!

Got a few more photos of him. Shows the beak well and one in flight. Hope this solves our mystery.

BTW...titled them House Sparrow