When the bird dropped down into the weeds to feed, I moved to a spot about 30 feet away from the brush and the bird soon reappeared with a few of his less celebrated feeding Buddies.
Here you can see the brownish cast to the back which is described as a feature of the western subspecies, "deserticola". The white in the tail was practcally un-noticable when the bird was perched or in flight, another point for the western subspecies.