I'm posting this image for ID purposes only, most definitely not for technical quality : ) Taken looking though a fence towards the far end of someone's garden, when a small group of four of us covered part of NE/SE Calgary for the annual Calgary Christmas Bird Count on 16 December 2012. The exact ID for the little bird on the left has been confirmed by several local top birders, but I'd be really interested to hear what anyone here might suggest. If any of you birders have time to give your two-cents' worth, it would be great. Lol, having a seed in their beaks doesn't help with the look of the birds. By the way, the bird on the left was the highlight for my small group's Count.

This was the 61st Calgary Christmas Bird Count, 16 December 2012. A record number of 249 birders took part in this year’s count, with 113 feeder-watchers and 136 observers in the field.

"A small pale bird of the high Arctic, the Hoary Redpoll is a rare winter visitor to southern Canada and the northern United States. During redpoll invasions, a few paler Hoary Redpolls can sometimes be spotted within flocks of Common Redpolls."

www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Hoary_Redpoll/lifehistory