What is this bird???

[buteo4]

I purchased this bird at the local pet store along with a male canary today. Amusingly, they said it was a "yellow bellied sapsucker." He is not banded and I have looked all over the internet trying to identify him. I am starting to worry about what it is and where it came from!

[buteo4]

A closer view.

[L in Ontario]

Hello Buteo and welcome to the Finch Forum. As close as my daughter and I can see - your new bird in the photo is very close to the "Western Spindalis". While it's not 100% match to the WS, it is definitely NOT a Yellow-bellied Sapsucker! Shame on them for telling you it was.

Google the Western Spindalis to find out what to feed him. He looks very pretty. A closer clear pic may help with positive identification (perhaps a subspecies or variant).

Again welcome to our forum and if you add your location in your profile, it could also help with the identity of this bird and give other specific answers for you.

[nixity]

Can I ask where you are located/where the bird was purchased? This may also help identify the species..

[nixity]

It does look quite like the bird Liz mentioned.

[cindy]

Welcome...he is beautiful, very unusual.

[JohnBoy]

I believe it's an African Gold Breasted Bunting.

[Jan]

Looks like an African Golden Breasted Bunting to me...

[L in Ontario]

Agreeing with the African Golden Breasted Bunting! Good call John!!

[buteo4]

Hello! Thank you for the warm welcome...I am so happy to be here! A pet store was the LAST place I wanted to purchase birds. I live in Menominee, MI which is on the lower tip of the UP on the WI border. Birds are very difficult to find here. I had originally wanted Gouldians but gave up on them when I couldn't find any closer than a 5-6 hour drive! I stopped by the pet store on a whim today, and got this bird and a male canary for half price of $100 for both. Apparently they belonged to an older gentleman who had gotten this bird at a bird swap. I was irresponsible to buy them so impulsively, but I had built an aviary with the help of a friend many months ago and have only had a pair of societies in it since. Though the canary seems healthy I noticed upon getting him home that his toenails are terribly overgrown! As for the other, I cannot imagine how such an unusual bird ended up here!

[B CAMP]

A good looking bird for sure

[lovemyfinch]

Welcome to that forum
I must say that he is very pretty

[monotwine]

Welcome to the forum. Here we love pictures of your birds especially exotic looking ones like yours.
Bunting it the first thing that came to mind when I saw your bird. Good call to those that managed to get it down to something less broad!

[Meagan83]

Beautiful! I think your "on a whim" descision was a good one!

[Ursula]

Welcome!

What a cute bird!

I had to laugh out loud about the "yellow bellied sapsucker"!!
(For all those who are not as much into native birds as I am, that's a type of woodpecker!)

It's amazing what some petstores will tell their customers. And I wouldn't be surprised if the sales person really believed that himself. (My funniest experience was a guy who told me all their animals in the store were females including the fish. I'm not an expert in fish but have tanks myself and even I can differentiate between a male and female guppy, and they clearly had both... )