Busy Day at the Feeder

Yesterday we had lots of visitors to the feeders. I'm used to seeing one or two birds at a time there, but quite often yesterday we had three or more. Below, three House Finches are at the feeding stations while a Chipping Sparrow watches from above. At one point a slim young finch was feeding itself but then accepted food from a parent, gaping wide and flapping its wings excitedly.

Before long, the finches were gone and the chippie had the feeder to him or herself. We've been a little surprised to see Chipping Sparrows at the feeder, thinking of them as preferring to feed on the ground, but apparently it is not unusual for them to visit feeders. Chippies are our smallest commonly-seen sparrow and are readily recognized by the reddish-brown ("rufous") caps on their heads.