Magical Mystery Feeder Bird

Christmas is rapidly approaching.

I've been gifted Santas through the years, and have bought some on my own.  Here are some of them.

Nature, though, has its own plans, and they don't include Santa.

On this first full day of winter we are about to get a big blast of winter weather. But, through the worst of weather, wildlife perseveres.  With shrinking habitats, we feel some responsibility.

Especially, I admire songbirds.  They weigh so little but are out there foraging in the winter weather, armed only with feathers, beak, and feet.  To help them out, we have four feeders in our backyard.  This is our second winter of feeding and watching our backyard birds.  

During our Southern Tier of New York Decembers, our feeders and the ground below them host various native birds including Northern Cardinals, black-capped chickadees, tufted titmice, house finches, gold finches, white throated sparrows, Carolina wrens, downy and hairy woodpeckers, red bellied woodpeckers, dark-eyed juncos, and mourning doves.  In nearby trees, we hear blue jays, American crows, and (a species relatively new to our area) fish crows.  In our neighborhood, there are additional birds - European starlings and house sparrows, among others.

Sometimes, though, there is a magical surprise.

Back on Monday, my spouse saw a bird he had never seen before on our suet feeder.  Later that day, I saw it, too. To me, it looked like a robin sized bird whose feathers have been totally mussed up.  

Maybe a late migrator?  A late juvenile?  We are still new to birding, and our Wild Birds Unlimited closed recently.  We have no one right now to ask.

We tried using Merlin, a free ID app, for ID.  First we tried Picture ID with a picture my spouse took (we also have a video but it's not too good). and it guessed the bird was a house finch, but it isn't.  It's bigger than a house finch.

Trying an ID based on color, size and behavior, we got birds we are already familiar with.

We need help!  I hope one of my readers familiar with New York (near the Pennsylvania border) birds can help out.

Here's the one picture spouse took that came out (and it's not that great - it was also taken out of a window so there is some glare).  The bird in question is in the brown bird in the center of the photo.  We also caught (to its left) a downy woodpecker, fortunately, so there is a way to estimate the size of our mystery bird.

Here are some observations: 

The bird seemed to have black (or dark brown) and whitish spots on its belly, which is hidden in this photo.  The wings seemed mottled.  The beak was not stout.  Its eyes were dark.

It's not a great photo but I hope some one out there has ideas.  We saw this bird Monday and Tuesday.  We haven't seen it since. 

I thank you, and I wish you many happy moments with beautiful birds.