Sparrow Quiz

[finnbay]

Okay you sharpies.... took some sparrow shots today and let's see who knows and who doesn't. I'm new at this bird ID game, so I'll put my guesses, but correct me if I'm wrong:

Fox Sparrow

White Throated (pretty sure on this one):

Chipping Sparrow:

[Steve Foss]

Pretty darn close, Ken. Sparrows can be tough for veteran and new birder alike. The fox and white-throated IDs are smack on. The final bird is an American tree sparrow, not a chipping sparrow.

Key field marks for tree sparrow are the rusty shoulder patch, unstreaked breast marked by a lone spot, larger size than chipping sparrow, and the chipping sparrow's distinct rusty cap is set off by a sharp black and white eye line.

[finnbay]

Woo-hoo! Thanks for the additional field marks!

[finnbay]

Steve,

A bunch of sparrows showed up this afternoon that I'm guessing are a variation of a fox sparrow. They are much darker on tne back, the red is subdued and they have a gray cap. Streaking on the breast is similar, but again much more subdued. Nothing else I see in the guide with a gray head comes this direction. Sorry, no photo right now.

Ken

[Steve Foss]

Ken, like dark-eyed juncos, fox sparrows show a pretty good range of plumage variation. While a lot of fox sparrow variations tend to be geographically oriented those lines aren't hard and fast. Take a look at all the plumage variations shown in the Sibley guide as an example.

[MARINERMAGNUM]

Those are some super shots! What lens?

[finnbay]

That is what I was looking at Steve, and was hoping that is the answer you were going to give. MM, I was using my 100-400mm, ISO 400. Most were at either f/5.6 or 6.3 and the shutter speed varied from 1/1250th to 1/2000th. I was using the manual setting and played a little when the sun tried to peek through.