It’s mid-April, which would seem way too early for a fledgling. However, there was a small bird feeder on my patio, under my bird feeder, that did not fly away when I approached it. I took a couple of photos of it. It looks like it has some extra fur on it like I imagine a baby bird would, but my husband suggests that maybe it is just an old bird that’s puffed up to stay warm.
What do you think? Is this bird young, or old? I hope he or she is OK. I checked later and it was no longer there.
Rather a late reply to your question but I just found a similar baby near my feeder on March 20, 2016 (Northern California). Mine is a fledgling pine siskin and it looks like yours was too. Hard to believe given how much bigger they look than the adults, but that’s pretty typical for fledglings. Mine had a splash of yellow on the wing that made it more obvious that it was a pine siskin.
Hi sorry for the bad news but it looks like it has got fat Finch disease which in most cases is fatal sorry for giving bad news.