IDing a bird, maybe a warbler?

[Alikina MacAndrew]

I need some help identifying a bird that's been visiting our feeders. It's about the size of a house finch in body, slightly longer tail than a house sparrow but not hugely long, different beak than a sparrow or finch - more like a warbler. It's colouring is black and white on the head, pale below, dark wings with white that really shows when it's flying. My best guess so far is a black-throated grey warbler, but I'm not 100% positive. It doesn't hang out with the finches or the sparrows, but prefers to sneak in when no one else is at the feeder. I did manage to get a couple pics yesterday, but they don't show much detail.

We live on the western edge of Fountain (a suburb of Colorado Springs), so we get birds from the mountains, birds from out on the prarie, and we'reon the flightline for just about everyone who travels the Rocky Mountain area, so location isn;t much help on ID, especially in the fall and spring.

[Gary Lefko]

Looks like Black-capped Chickadee (phot dark)--I'll lighten up in Photoshop at home. Gary

[Alikina MacAndrew]

Yeah - I'm working on photoshopping the pics as well (and trying to see through seed spots on the window, lol). I suppose it could be a chickadee, although it didn't quite seem like one. Then again, I almost never see them down in town, only when I'm up in the mountains, so maybe my mind just wasn't set in that direction. It only stayed in one spot for maybe 15-30 seconds at most - VERY chickadee behaviour. Being inside I didn't catch much of it's call, but what I heard was kind of a fweeeet-fweet, not the classic chick-a-dee or the chip-chip sound.

Thanks,
Alik

[Alikina MacAndrew]

Yep - definitley a black-capped chickadee - thanks for the clue. Yesterday he (or she?) was back, and while I was peering out the window trying to see which tree he was in now, he shot straight up to the feeder - we both had a shocked face-to-face moment, and then he retreated to a tree until I moved out of the way, and I moved off to the side so I could point the camera at the feeder and wait. But the close-up was good for ID!

Thanks,
Alikina

P.S. He's still persisting in trying to throw me off guard with his calls - not once have I heard any of the typical chickadee calls, but several times he's done a long fweeet-fweeeeeet.