My new camera came through for me big time!  We’ve been pretty convinced that our avian houseguests (wreathguests?) are house finches, but I hadn’t been able to get a picture to confirm it until this afternoon.  The papa bird was hanging out on the tree in front of our house when I went outside, and I snapped the following picture:

Now, compare with the image of the male house finch from Whatbird.com:

Birdwatch win!  The daddy bird headed back to the nest right after I took the picture, so I know I’ve got the right bird this time.   I’m quite exhilarated at finally having a positive ID; the fiancée and I are thinking of taking up birdwatching now.