|
Photo Quiz 3 Did you get it right? See the names of correct responders, below... |
|
|
| Photo Quiz #3. |
|
A brown streaky bird flying up into a bush. A sparrow, right? Probably. But even if so, which one? Kenn Kaufman, in his Advanced Birding (1990) sorts sparrows into 10 major groups based on shape and pattern. Ten groups may still be too many for many of us, but look again at the overall shape of the quiz bird. The body is short and plump, almost round. The tail is neither excessively long, nor stubbily short. If this bird is a sparrow, then the longer tail eliminates Savannah Sparrow and the Ammodramus genus of sparrows such as Grasshopper and Sharp-tailed. On the other hand, the short stubby body eliminates the longer Zonotrichia sparrows, such as Golden-crowned. Now that we've looked at the general pattern and shape, let's take a closer look at the field marks. The basic background color of the upper parts is a pale tan-brown. There are several broad blackish-brown streaks on the back. The secondaries and wing coverts show some chestnut edges. The wings are short. The tail sticks out below the branch just a bit, but we can't see the tip of the tail enough to determine if the tip is square, notched, or rounded. The tail does not have white outer tail feathers or tail corners, which some sparrows show. Even though we can't see the front of the face, we can still make out the general pattern from the back of the head. For instance, we can see that the crown is striped. We can say a bit more by looking closely and paying attention to detail. There is a gray central crown stripe edged very narrowly with black. Then there is a lateral crown stripe of chestnut-brown. Then the rest of the face, including the supercilium (eyebrow), is tan. There is a trace of a narrow brown ear covert mark on the side of the tan head. Of course, we can't tell about the lores, whisker marks, throat, or eyerings from this view, but we can still see quite a bit more than what it would first appear. Finally we have a tan rump and buffy flanks with scattered narrow brown streaks. The legs and feet are pink. The nails are long, but not excessively so. So let's start eliminating some possible non-sparrow species. The hind toe nail, while fairly long, is very much shorter than larks, pipits, longspurs, and even sparrows such as Fox Sparrow. The short wings of our quiz bird further eliminates those same long-winged larks, pipit, and longspurs. Marsh Wren has a stubbier tail and the striping on the back is confined to a small patch of narrow black and white lines. Striped brown female Red-winged Blackbirds can give trouble to beginners, but is more blackish and chestnut, and has longer wings and a longer body. The underparts of finches, siskins, and crossbills are more heavily streaked, and the streaks are generally broader, not so sharply defined. So a sparrow it must be. but not any of the Aimophila sparrows such as Cassin's and Botteri's. Not the gray-necked Rufous-winged, Sage, American-Tree, or Field sparrows. The quiz bird is really too plump and large-headed for the Spizella sparrows such as Brewer's and Chipping. Vesper Sparrow has white outer tail feathers. We are quickly left with the Melospiza sparrows: Song, Lincoln's, and Swamp. Not surprisingly, over 70% of the quiz participants chose one of these birds. Of these, only Lincon's Sparrows have buffy flanks and tan rump with narrow dark streaks. This Lincoln's Sparrow was photographed by Greg Gillson at Jackson Bottom Wetlands, Hillsboro, Oregon, on 31 December 2006.
|
|
| Lincoln's Sparrow. Photo by Greg Gillson. |
|
I was surprised how many people correctly identified the quiz bird. As last month, we had 18 correct responses, however with fewer people making guesses than last month. Lincoln's Sparrow 18 Correct responses, in order received:
|