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May 3, 2007  Quite Round Sparrow Invasion No Phil, we are not being invaded by Quite-Round Sparrows - I believe I said White-crowned Sparrows. Nevertheless, in studying the Sparrows in question, one does get the impression that ‘quite round’ might be an apt description. As I have done in years past when the White-crowns begin pouring through the area, I take time and scrutinize each seething flock for hitchhikers - other Sparrows that are not White-crowns but tucked in and traveling alongside. On the first day of watching I spotted a Lincoln’s Sparrow blending in quite nicely although it looked nothing like the White-crowns in size. Of course there is nothing unusual about seeing a Lincoln’s Sparrow at this time of year but when it appears in a flock of other Sparrows I go through the exercise of trying to make it out to be other than what it is. Try as I might it remained a Lincoln. What is it that makes a Lincoln’s Sparrow a Lincoln’s Sparrow? The bird does not possess chin hair and sport a stovepipe hat, or get its name from a famous US president. It is in fact a most suitable member of a group of birds often written off as LBJ’s (This is not another reference to a past US president; rather it is my own acronym for ‘Little Brown Jobs’ - Little brown birds that are very difficult to identify.) You wouldn’t believe how many perfectly good bird sightings are tossed away because they come up as LBJ’s. Like most LBJ’s, the Lincoln’s Sparrow has streaking on its chest. The streaking is not the ‘big marking pen’ streaks of the Song Sparrow; it is the fine streaking of a #5 watercolour brush tip. This feature alone almost identifies the bird but one should also study head features just to nail down the identity. The head is grey with a brown streak running from just behind the eyes and extending out almost to the nape. The cap is brown and separated in the middle by a paler area of grey. The lines of brown feathers on either side of the crown often stand a bit on end giving the bird a ragged crest look. Buffy malar area, rufous wings, fine streaking on a brown back and buffy flanks are other features which denote a Lincoln’s Sparrow. But let’s leave the Lincoln’s and scan the White-crowned Sparrow flocks again. The next bird showing itself in the milling hordes was a female Purple Finch. (All Purple Finches that look female aren’t female. I recall reading in an advanced bird identification book that first year male Purple Finches can look like females of the species.) To further confuse the issue, the female Finch sings beautifully as a male usually would. As if to demonstrate her singing ability, the dull coloured Finch ascended to a tree in the front yard and burst into song. I opened the front door to let her song in; it was that remarkable. A Purple Finch is almost a poster bird for the LBJ’s; not to take anything away from the Lincoln’s Sparrow, but the Purple Finch is almost plainer. It too is streaked on the breast and generally streaked on the face and back. Overall the brown of a Purple Finch female is a dull, dustier brown. The facial markings and beak are two things that help define the bird. The beak is heavy and fringed at the base with a little dust mop of whitish feathers. Coming from the shoulder area, a brown thick streak engulfs the eye. The crown is similarly dark and the malar region is strongly marked with a brown streak that gives the bird’s head, starting at the throat, a white-brown, white-brown, white-brown pattern. Plainly stated the Purple Finch looks homely. Today I saw a bird in my yard’s White-crowned Sparrow flock that I half expected to find on such inspections – a Golden-crowned Sparrow. This Sparrow looks like it rolled off the same assembly line as the White-crowns but something got fouled up in painting the top and sides of the head. The supercillium area, which is white in the White-crowned Sparrow is black in the Golden-crowned. Instead of looking for gold or yellow when searching for this bird among the rest, one should instead look for a black-crowned Sparrow. There is gold but it is at the top and front of the head and sandwiched in between the black velvety strips that reach down to the top of the eye and seem to threaten to spill over it. It is worth scrutinizing the White-crowned flocks just for this rare chance of seeing the Golden-crowned Sparrow because if it is missed on such migrations it can only be seen in the mountainous areas in nesting season. But I’m not finished with my sifting of White-crowned flocks for further gold. My quarry is now the elusive White-throated Sparrow and the very elusive Harris’s Sparrow, both kin to the White-crowns. In Latin these Sparrows - White-crowned, Harris’s, Golden-crowned and White-throated - are known as the Zonotrichia group, they are that closely related. I am therefore on a Zono quest and even though, a few years back I got my Zono grand slam, I don’t really expect to do it again. I can however be entertained in the meantime. Oh look, now there’s the male Purple Finch! To e-mail Tom CLICK HERE To look at previous column CLICK HERE |
