Help with two identifications.

[Maestro]

I think this is a type of sparrow but I am really not sure. Any ideas?

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v116/maestros/Nature/Sparrow_white_rock.jpg

This next shot is a bad pic shot in even worse condition down in the Hill Country. It looks it may be a kinglet but again, I'm not sure.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v116/maestros/Nature/Songbird2.jpg

[betsy]

Maestro, your first bird is frequently mistaken for being some kind of a sparrow, but its bill is a bit too long and sharply pointed for a sparrow and the bird is a mite too large. (Our largest sparrow is 7" long -- this bird is about 8.75" long). This bird with the pronounced pale eyebrow and the very heavily streaked breast is a female Red-winged Blackbird. The last few days I've been seeing them feeding in flocks of other females, on the emerging vegetation at the tops of trees.

Your second bird is not a kinglet -- kinglets have more boldly patterned wings, with a white bar and some dark bits. This bird is rather non-descript -- no wing bars to speak of, not much in the way of facial pattern beyond a broken white eye ring, a thin dark line through the eye and a bit of a white line above the eye, thin dark bill. I'm thinking Orange-crowned Warbler, although the gray hood contrasting with the olive-brown body bothers me and the tail seems a mite long for that, but the hill country, like North Central Texas, has only two winter-resident warblers and the other one has wingbars, so unless I'm all wet (always a possibility!) and it's not even a warbler, I don't know what else to call it. Maybe someone else can give a more confident id on that one.

[Maestro]

Thanks Betsy. You are a great help as usual. I was thinking that the second bird could have been a warbler if not a kinglet. We'll see what others have to say.