Tina, hi. I'd like to see the wings of Rusty's yellowish feeder bird; I was thinking Goldfinch as well. We'll have to wait for Rusty's next photo!

Rusty and Tina:

Here's a link to a checklist of Wisconsin birds, arranged to go along with your field guide and, most importantly, showing the abundance by season. This is a good tool to narrow down the potential choices.

http://dnr.wi.gov/org/land/er/publicati ... cklist.pdf

I agree with Tina. It's an American Goldfinch in it's winter plumage. See a lot of them at my feeder this time of year.

Rusty,
The Ntl.Geo. field guide is worth its weight in gold! Barnes & Noble have them on sale quite often. So the cinnamon colored bird is a goldfinch.....never seen one that color before.
Chas

Well, I'll be darned,

It could well be a goldfinch. My yard sure is lousy with them all summer. Winter plumage never occurred to me 'cause I thought they all headed down Chuck's way as soon as it got cold. I'll know better if I can ever get a look with the full wing area showing. The only bit I could see (shoulder area) was streaked with black rather than yellow.

Chuck, what a nice reference. When I learn more about birding I'll realize that things like that exist I'll be using the contact info therein to obtain a printed copy.

Thanks, y'all, for looking and commenting.

Rusty

Rusty, I picked up a Copy of Stan Teklia's "Birds Of Oregon" field guide at a second hand bookstore for just a few $s and it makes identifying pretty simple. Hmmm,that ones mostly brown,so I just look in the color coded "brown birds section" and yep there it is. They have an issue for each state and thats the best thing,it only has the birds from your specific state in it.
http://www.amazon.com/Birds-Wisconsin-F ... 1885061617

I think you may have hit the nail on the head. Here is a photo taken by Ed Johnson of a female Goldfinch in winter plumage.

My cup runneth over with ideas

Rusty