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Agreed! Sounds like a perfect description for the northern flicker, a type of woodpecker.

Yeah, that black ear patch is a good mark for any winter Forster's.

Definitely looks like a Savannah. I agree the bill is not right for a Song, and the color pattern on the head rules out saltmarsh sharp-tailed and vesper. Savannah would also be one of the most common sparrow species I saw nearly every day in the dunes on the Monomoy/South Beach complex in Chatham (I worked on South Beach all summer). Never did ...

Making a bunch of noise while flapping its wings is typical fledgeling behavior for almost any passerine. They often do this for a few weeks after leaving the nest, and goldfinches are relatively late nesters, with many juveniles out and about now. You may want to keep your eye on it. You'll likely see it visited and fed by one of its parents.

I'd agree with Forster's as well. More likely adults going into winter plumage than juveniles, but I don't have my field guide with me now. One bird in particular shows the typical Forster's black eye patch with out much black on the head like you would see in a Roseate. Also, although the angle is not exactly side view, a Roseate would be ...

I can't give you a definite ID, but if that is a great black-backed gull close by it, you have one of the larger tern species here. My best guess is a Royal. The bird's size and the bill shape seem right. They also lose their breeding plumage earlier than many of the common MA terns, hence the extensive white forehead.

That's a male Baltimore Oriole. Beautiful bird!

Agreed. There are many groups and sites that band birds, although not nearly as many do field-readable color banding. I know the Shoals Marine Laboratory bands gulls, so you may want to contact them first: http://www.sml.cornell.edu/sml_research_gull_program.html Regardless of who put it on, any color-banded birds for which you can't read the ...

Sorry Matt, I certainly don't mean to be antagonistic or to prevent people from getting close to and enjoying birds and the beauty of their eggs and nests. I never meant to declare that nono's presence at the nest definitively caused it to be abandoned. I actually stated several other options in my first reply. Maybe there was a flock of blue jays ...

Sorry WarblerSwallower and Matt, birds can and do abandon nests because of human disturbance. This isn't common for birds with nestlings or even once they've begun incubating their full clutch of eggs (although some like Piping Plovers still will). At that point, they have already invested a huge amount of time and energy into raising their chicks ...