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Hi,
I have received private missives from 6
birding experts, all of whom I highly respect, who have informed me
(unanimously) that this is a Song Sparrow.
What follows is an e-mail to a friend (birding with
me at the time) that shows my ill-fated attempt at identifying this particular
bird, based on the fuzzy photo and what I observed in the field. He, too, like
the other experts, had concluded it was a Song Sparrow, but I wasn't
convinced:
"I don't think
the picture's clear enough to determine if there's streaking
on the breast. The secondary wing pattern (black with white edging) looks just like the Sibley illustration for a white-crowned. The dark heavy black eyestripe looks like a chipper, the rufous head would fit all 3 birds, the moustachial stripe could possibly fit all 3 birds. All 3 birds have a white eye ring. "Based on the wing pattern (see Sibley), the weak moustachial stripe, and the rufous head, I would bet on a first winter White-crowned Sparrow. We saw quite a few out there that day. What doesn't quite fit is such a heavy eye stripe, like a chipping sparrow. "Sibley's first winter white-crowned shows a weak moustachial stripe. The short primary extension and secondary wing pattern looks identical to the white-crowned Sibley illustration. "If I post it on birdnet, I'm willing to bet there won't be anything approaching a consensus. If I knew for sure what it was, and had a better picture to prove it, I could do a bird quiz ala Tim Avery. Under the circumstances, I'm hesitant to post it, particularly, since it's unlikely to be anything unusual and the photo's so inconclusive. It's fun speculating however. As you can see, I was totally wrong on the
consensus. Song Sparrow wins, hands down, and I'll have to eat crow
:-(
Humbly yours,
Jim
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