CLOSED: Identification please

I am in Ft. Worth, Tx. can you identify these two birds for me?

Here is one I found today eating an apple. It stayed all day eating it. This one is just a bit smaller than a robin.

Thanks for your help.

datura12, the first appears to be a female house finch. as foe the second, i've no clue unless it's an orchard oriole. lee

Agree with female House Finch for the first. Second, I'd say more likely immature Baltimore Oriole, the bill looks too large and heavy for Orchard Oriole.

Resin

hello resin, now that i have out my 'sibley's' the bill does indeed look too large. lee p.s. it's been a while. how have you been?

Looking at my Texas Bird Book it shows the Baltimore Oriole in this area, however there is one called a Bullock's (no laughing from the Brit! LOL) in this area also ,and it states we have hybrids of the two. As one favors the eastern part of Texas (Baltimore) which is piney woods and the other more western (Bullock's) which is hot, dry and prarie. This one is yellow as opposed to the bright orange bird I had visit in the spring. Does this help any more or have I confused everyone? I really appreciate your input as birds are not my area of expertise.

Resin, are you north of Chillingham?

datura12, i find it difficult to i.d. some even with mt field guide. we seldomly see baltimores noe. as a child, i remember many of the. in 13 yrs. here, i've seen only one. the hybrids are just too difficult for me. btw, loved your reference to bullocks. needed the chuckle.
i'm no pro at birding myself but do like to keep track of them. i still say i could die happy if some ivory-billed woodpeckers were found. they have always intrigued me.
good luck on your i.d. if you get concrete i.d. please do post. i'll con't to check out my bird books and contribute what i know. lee

More likely to be Baltimore in Fort Worth; you'd only get many Bullock's further west, say west of around Abilene. Hybrids do occur, but will be heavily out-numbered by non-hybrids. At this time, there will be a huge number of passage birds moving south from breeding areas further north/northeast, your bird could just as easily be from almost anywhere in eastern Canada or the entire Midwest, on its way to winter in the tropics.

Oh, and sorry to disappoint you all, but bullock isn't anything special here, just young male cattle or (as here) someone's name . . . the bad word you're thinking of is bol****s ;-))

Resin

resin, thanks for the correction on the naughty word. :))) lee

Forgot . . .

Resin,

Sir Humphry who owns Chillingham Castle, sans Lady Wakefield he was here at a art museum and the guest speaker. His son an art dealer was with him together they brought a collection of the UK artist Beswick's personal items and his ink drawings of the famous cattle herd. He encouraged the crowd to visit him at the Castle. I was in UK at Thanksgiving last year and really wanted to go but we just didn't have time.

I am going to see if I can get better pics of this bird, I put a fresh apple out for it today. For now we will just consider it a Baltimore. I also had a Painted Bunting here in mid spring and almost died when I saw it, I was putting out orange slices, a sugar feeder and grape jelly. Think I could lure it back, NO!...the mocking birds and robins loved it though.

Resin, I believe my Oriole has flown the coup so to speak. I have not seen it in a couple of days. Could you please tell me what characteristics told you it was immature?

Thanks for the ID

I had one Oriole come through here last spring for about two days. Then the first of Sept. I had 3 pairs show up for two weeks. Mine do not look like either Orioles in my Natl Audobon Society Field Guide, so they must be hybrids. They left three days after Ike came through. They love grape jelly and hummingbird food. They also like oranges.
I expect them to be back next spring, maybe with more company.

I too have painted buntings, and indigo buntings. I feed many birds year round. I love watching them and listening to them.

Resin, does the Baltimore also have a patch of orange on the top of the head?

Not in adult males, but neither does Bullock's.

I think what you can see in this photo is something bright in the background producing some burn-out glare in the pic, it isn't part of the bird.

Resin

Resin, I looked at this bird with binoculors for a close up look several times. It definately had a an orange patch on the top of it's head. It also had more white in the wings than black. It doesn't look anything like the Orioles in my field guide, although I know it'a an Oriole. It's a conundrum.

Strange! In that case I'd guess a one-off mutation, similar to a leucistic or partial albino bird.

Resin

Resin

I always get the strange anything. Like I said in my first post, there were three pairs. The upper breast was an orange where it faded to deep gold down to the legs. The head was all black accept the orange patch on the the top of the head. The wings had mostly white with black bars. The female had the same markings but she was an olive and golden color. I don't recall any white on her wings, although there might have been. A very striking bird to say the least. Whatever it is, I feel blessed to have had two weeks of pleasure watching it.