Any guesses?

[elleng]

Female cardinal?

[OnyxCollie]

1. That would be my guess.

[elleng]

3. OK. I only guessed that because I caught this a bit earlier:

[L0oniX]

2. Female Jay or Cardinal

[dixiegrrrrl]

4. the female cardinal is rather drab brown

the bill is a good clue

as is your noticiing the red male near by.

[elleng]

6. And I can almost see the slight red undercoat,

I think.

[cpwm17]

5. It looks like a female cardinal to me

The crest is down and barely visible.

[Curmudgeoness]

7. Absolutely. That profile is distinct.

But I would not know female or male just from the photo, since the light is such that there could be more color than is apparent. But then again, I would figure you wouldn't ask if it was bright red.

[elleng]

8. Right, Curmudgeoness,

I saw the bright red guy earlier, and posted a pic. Not sure whether, if he had alighted on the branch, his color would have been as apparent as it was, but I suspect they're different birds, same family.

[Curmudgeoness]

9. One thing about cardinals that I love

is that the pair stays together the whole year, not just at nesting time. You will rarely see one without the other, if you look around enough. And sometimes, the whole family hangs together for the winter.

[elleng]

10. We saw that, at our house in DC,

we were there for 20? years, and saw cardinals and blue jays. I've just moved into this place in September, southern MD, so only first observing. And just got camera a few weeks ago, which surely helped, with the zoom.