On Monday, a friend asked:

Any chance you can identify this bird -- or know someone who might?  It was shot in December 2004 in Los Angeles near the coast.

After reading the identifications from readers,  he commented:   I think Louise Riccobene got it right -- Lesser Goldfinch, western phase, winter plumage, which tends to be greener with less black than the Texas phase. 

I went back into old images that had been passed over and found other members of this flock which provided more information and better matches to the guide books and other internet postings. 

Thanks again, I would never have gotten this on my own.

(Thanks, Louise --  and Deedee Burnside and Diane Van Kempen, who  concurred....)