After considering the input from other people, I have decided that it was definitely a Chipping Sparrow.
I forgot before to list the features that led me to the decision of Chipping Sparrow over American Tree Sparrow or Clay-Colored Sparrow. It was harder to see in the pictures, but the sparrow definitely did not have a two-toned beak. And the pictures make it look like there is a spot on his breast, but that was more from ruffled feathers caused by the way he stuffed himself up in the tree. He also had the distinct black stripe through the eye, a gray rump, and a couple of other features, which made me fairly confident about the Chipping Sparrow ID. I noticed, as did other people, that MOU says that the median departure date for Chipping Sparrow's is November 10, which also surprised me because I haven't seen any for weeks here in the metro. Thank you to everybody for help in confirming the ID. Ben Harste ---- Join or Leave mou-net: http://lists.umn.edu/cgi-bin/wa?SUBED1=mou-net Archives: http://lists.umn.edu/archives/mou-net.html
