This winter has graced Duxbury Beach with many redpolls and that has led me to search for a
Hoary Redpoll among the many Common Redpolls. I believe there are at least 3 among the roughly 150-200 birds (2 flocks one in the area of the 1st & 2nd xovers and the other south of High Pines) continuing as of this date. They are so active that I have had trouble getting photos, but today I was lucky and got 3 decent shots of this individual before a truck flushed the whole group.

The first photo shows most of the distinguishing features - chunky body, overall pale (i.e., "hoary"), breast color is a pale pinkish wash not a stronger red, a smaller "pinched" bill, very few stripeson the underparts.

The second shows the back (but unfortunately not the rump which was very white) and the striping pattern is much more white and gray than on the other Redpolls which look much darker.

The third shows the undertail area which is essentially unmarked though a couple of tiny flecks can be seen in this photo. The Common Redpolls showed much more marking than this bird.