We’ve seen these dudes (or their relatives) in the past once or twice, but they’re not regulars.
Maybe it’s the grapes that brought them out. Putting a handful out is an experiment and they all disappeared in a day, so they were popular!
The “zebra-stripes” on the head make these guys stand out.
There were two or three flitting in, grabbing a seed or a chunk of grape, and flitting out.
They were fighting the mourning doves for the seeds. They may have been out of their weight class, but they were holding their own.
The Merlin app tells me that there are two similar species in our area. I’ve seen a Golden-crowned Sparrow once or twice, but never when I had a camera with me. They’re similar, but they just have one stripe on their head and it’s bright yellow.
The other is the Lark Sparrow, which has stripes on its head that’s more dark brown and white, and they go all the way around the head and down onto the throat, seven or eight stripes instead of three.
They’re very similar in size and coloration to the house finches. Any given morning we’ll have a couple dozen or more house finches out there when the seed gets scattered, so except for the head markings these guys fit right in.
A decent picture of the markings on the wing and back feathers.
This one finally marched up to the edge of the porch and started barking at me. I think the gist of it was, “We want more grapes! Where’s the good stuff, the fresh ones?”
We Love The Stars Too Fondly 