I discovered today the birds appear to be hatching. I did a little stakeout and managed to get a few shots of the mom and dad:
Mama Bird was quite happily perched on the edge of her nest, but after a few flashes, Papa Bird was a little more cautious and would not come much closer:
I was mildly concerned about scaring them away from their hatching babies, but they have flown away and come back so many times over the last few days that I ultimately decided it was okay with them. I mean, you can't nest by someone's front door and expect to have a peaceful incubation period.
Nonetheless, I did decide that I would hold off on peering into the nest again, for at least another day. I took a quick peek this afternoon and definitely saw some Baby Birds in the midst of emerging. From what I saw, said babies are not all that attractive, so don't expect too many photos.
In any event, now that we've seen the parents, is there any chance someone can identify these suckers? What is in those eggs?! I was sold on regular old house sparrow, but then I saw Papa Bird and his colorful head/chest and decided we weren't harboring the "winged rodents."
My latest theory is that we're dealing with the House Finch. I'm still not sure our particular eggs fit in with this theory, though. But, the finch males are red breasted, apparently because of their food. The more red the male has, the better catch he is, so looks like our Mama Bird is a pretty lucky lady.