Becky, You did nail it! I believe it is the female indigo bunting. I can't believe none of us thought of that possibility before!!!
This:
Immature and winter female: more rufescent overall than breeding female, with blurry streaking on breast and flanks.
From:
http://animals.nationalgeograp...
Fits to a T. I did not believe the photos on the Cornell site quite matched your photo -- the color on yours was slightly different -- yours had a roufous quality to it, plus there is some greenish brown in the tail area there. How about these photos? Perfect matches:
Look at the bill in this one -- the upper part being dark & lower being light just like your photo
https://www.flickr.com/photos/...
And in this one you can clearly see the coloration in the tail that matches yours
http://www.pbase.com/dadas115/...
Look at this one:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...
You did it girl!!!!!!
Now you need to call those bunting banders!
