Answer by Tony Leukering and Tyler Bell

Due to a lack of time, I here rely on Tyler Bell to get us off on the right foot:

"My initial reaction to this bird was, "Hmmm, Sa$ge Sparrow." Then I started looking at the stripes wrapping around the side of the head and discounted Sage. That left either Five-striped and Black-throated sparrows. However, the back color is wrong for Five-striped, as is the lack of white on the R5s. So, that leaves Black-throated Sparrow."

Thanks, Tyler. However, I cannot emphasize too much the importance of noting all visible field characters and the presence on our quiz bird of both white and black above the (not visible) eyes of the beastie. Additionally, gnatcatchers have very thin-based tails that ought to be noticeable on the view we have. I took this picture of a male (singing) Black-throated Sparrow near Higbee, Otero Co., CO, on 15 May 2005 while on a CFO convention field trip. I have provided another view of the same bird, below.

Tallies of incorrect guesses for quiz species:
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher - 1
Townsend's Solitaire - 1
White Wagtail - 1
Sage Sparrow - 1
Gray Flycatcher - 1
Black-capped Gnatcatcher - 1

Congratulations to:
The 15 of 21 respondents guessing correctly:

Marcel Such
Lisa Edwards
John Bissell
Devich Farbotnik
Thomas Lechleitner
Jeff Bouton
Chris Warren
Al Guarente
Thomas Hall
Tyler Bell
Rachel Hopper
Aaron Brees
Bryan Guarente
John Dillon
Chishun Kwong

Answer: Black-throated Sparrow