Quiz: Lesser Goldfinch

Some quiz photos are challenging because the bird is tough; this one, though, is challenging because the photo is lousy.

The cropped image that was the subject of the original quiz included, to the right of the blurry feathered blob, just the tip of the closest bird’s tail and a few squares of mesh from the thistle feeder–those clues told us at least that the mystery bird was tiny and that it was keeping company with a Lesser Goldfinch.

Tiny bird with goldfinches, showing blackish wings and a big white patch across the inner primaries: has to be another Lesser Goldfinch. Pheucticus grosbeaks, besides being huge and huge-billed, show more white more complexly distributed in the spread wing, and a very different back pattern.

What about age and sex? This is a July photograph, so all age and sex classes are present (as they are most of the time in Lesser Goldfinch, a bird that heeds the call to multiply at any time of year). There’s way too much white in the wing for a female of any age. I’m not certain, though, that I can see enough other features to age this male, but there are no obvious molt limits in the remiges, which makes me believe that it is an AHY bird.

Anybody able to offer a more compelling argument for age from this smudgy image?