Here are 3 pics from a friend’s back yard. The bird on the twig on the far left is a sparrow and the one we’re not sure of is the one flying away from the camera.
Male Purple finch? Although usually it seems they have more red on their back, the white barring on the wings and the red shoulders are evident in a lot of pics I found.
They look like Chickadees on steroids.
It’s the same sort of bird (sparrow, right? we don’t get any at our bird feeders…) as the one standing at the feeder in picture 3. Same white banding, same reddish brown coloring on the wings.
Thanks…it must be a trick of the camera…I thought it looked much larger than the other birds in the pics. I also had forgotten that sparrows can be so varied in color.
Colibri, your samples look like the tail feathers are tucked in while in flight while Dan’s are splayed out. Is that significant?
Not Colibri, but no - it looks like it is coming in for a landing. The tail is splayed out to slow it. Compare and in profile and from the back ( the last a non-sparrow obviously, but close enough in body form ).
It looks bigger because the wings and tail are spread. If you look at the other bird perched on the twig at about the same distance, you can see that the heads of both are about the same size. Male House Sparrows are much brighter than females. You can see that the male perched at top on the feeder has bright reddish shoulders like the one in flight.
The bird in your photo is spreading its tail feathers to brake as it comes in to land on the twig. The ones in my examples are in level flight so they are holding the tail closed.
Thanks for solving the mystery! You guys rock! Your check’s in the mail for services rendered. 
Yup, that’s definitely a bird.