What kind of bird has a black head and throat, with a white ring around it's neck with a grey chest, body and wings? It's smaller than a robin, but bigger than a sparrow, with a seed eating beak. We've seen it twice here in Charlotte, NC, but even the woman at the bird store can't identify it. It's not a junco, an oregon junco, or a nuthatch. None of them have a white ring around their necks. Someone wanted more info about its habitat and what it was doing. It was sitting on a branch, then it flew away! We've only seen it twice here in NC, and is obviously not a common bird, at least for this area.