Hoary Redpoll

I’ve become almost blasé as to whether or not there are Hoary Redpolls among the huge flock that arrives here daily. Compared to the Common Redpoll, any Hoary would be quite rare. However, I continue to see one or two individuals that are much lighter than the rest of the flock and those are the ones I suspect of being Hoary Redpolls. Today I got a couple of excellent (for the weather conditions and the fact that I shot the pictures using my digiscoping equipment through the front window) photos of one individual that seemed downright snowy in comparison to the others. If this is not a Hoary redpoll, then I don’t know what is.





Now compare the two: Hoary on the left; Common Redpoll on the right.



And another shot of a Common Redpoll male having some red on his breast.



From the Cornell Lab of Ornithology’s All About Birds:
Hoary Redpoll
Common Redpoll