My yard, South McClellan, Marquette, Michigan, 24 April 2011

Analysis. Here we have two different photos of the same bird, in the same location (my yard), on the late date of 24 April. In the first photo, you can see the immaculate rump, the whitish scapulars, the small (but not tiny) bill, and the pale overall color. In the second photo you can see the (nearly) immaculate undertail coverts. In both photos you can see the minimal (and thin) flank streaking as well as the nasal bristles that cover the upper mandible (giving it a bulged forehead look). A Hoary Redpoll, it seems. But the rosy pink tones on the breast seem unusually intense (perhaps this is just an exaggerated artifact of the direct and warm sunlight of late afternoon).

David Sibley has a helpful “redpoll scale”gleaned from Delcan Troy’s phenetic analysis of redpolls (Auk, 1985). You may find it here. Via this scale, our redpoll scores a 16, which is solidly in the Hoary range (for males; and the scale is stricter for males than it is for females). The brightness of the rosy tone is startling, to be sure. But again the hue is rosy pink (which is what it should be for male Hoary) as opposed to wine red (as it should be for male Common). Moreover, the flanks, rump, and undertail are diagnostic for Hoary. So I’d say that this is a male Hoary Redpoll (exilipes) with especially bright rosy pink chest color. I’d welcome your comments on this bird.