A worldwide community photographing and learning about wildlife
Spinus psaltria
looks like this lesser gold finch has a deformed beak.
apeach,you are 100 percent correct on the ID . It is just that I am a litttle late in updating it!
Referencing several sources, they appear to have conical beaks in illustrations (as in the Sibley guide to birds) but in other photos their beaks look a bit curved. Perhaps this one was born with a particularly curved beak or had an accident, but I'm still quite sure of its ID. Poor little guy!
I think their beaks tend to look a bit odd, but perhaps I'm missing something particularly odd about it?