We've been noticing an interesting bird at our bird feeder in the last couple of months, but haven't been able to identify it. The bird is about the same size and shape as the House Finches that flock around the feeder, but this bird has a lot of bright white feathers on its head, back and underside. It's not entirely white; it has some black feathers on its wings, but the amount of white on this bird is noticeable enough to be startling. Unfortunately, it doesn't appear very often and is so shy that I haven't been able to get a photo of it.
I've searched several bird books and the Cornell Lab of Ornithology's Bird Guide, but haven't found this bird. The closest thing I've found is the Snow Bunting, but we are outside that bird's normal range, and the pictures of it seem to show more brown on it than our bird has.
An alternative suggestion from the Audubon Society is that it might be House Finch or sparrow that is a partial albino. http://birds.audubon.org/faq/i-have-white-bird-my-feeder-it-albino.
Whatever it is, it's appearances have made watching the activity around our feeder even more interesting than usual.
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