Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Bird ID help

Great to meet you Ms Cher.

Perhaps folks will be more civil with another mother at the "fire".

who is gonna need moderators if mom's are around? My mom still keeps me in line, don't wanna get swatted with that wooden spoon again.

Female house sparrow, way bigger than all the rest.

Those wooden spoons were around when I was a kid.I can personally testify to 50 years of them.

It looks most like a song sparrow.

http://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Song_Sparrow/id

The pic here of an american tree sparrow is very similar except there are no brown chest streaks and their winter range is a bit north of you.

http://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/American_Tree_Sparrow/id

Because that's worked so well with Les's Mom, Sassy around? Magic 8 ball says "outlook doubtful"

Welcome aboard Cher.

Look again at this, there is a song sparrow in it too, center.
Look at the size difference.

Rufous Crowned Sparrow. Is big for a sparrow though.

Sparrows can be tough but that one is a Song Sparrow. The middle one probably a Chipping, hard to tell by that pic, it could also be a Field. If it's seen again, one of the ID features of the Song is there should be a large central spot in the middle of the breast.

Ahh I think you might be right. I believe I may have mis-ID that as a song sparrow.
If I can keep the squirrels out of the yard maybe they'll come back.

Yup, definitely a chipping. I should have known that,they are all over my deck right now... Added some feeders after the big storm. Very popular!

The size of the mystery bird is about right for a female redwing black bird...



When it flies, a song sparrow or fox sparrow will most often stay low and go for cover, a red-wing will usually go up to the tree tops.

Prob'y a little chipping sparrow in that other pic I think.

Birdwatcher

Not bad thinking, but in one of the pics, you can see the fu man chu type mustache going down from each side of the cheek. A few sparrows have that, and while in itself is not an ID feature, the female RW does not.

The ol' malar stripe.

But... here's a generic song sparrow for reference...



I had a forehead-slapping "doh!" moment when I opened the thread this morning. And I'd bet the farm on female red-wing.

Note the thinner, proportionately longer and more pointed beak on the mystery bird. Note the heavy, uniform streaking on the nape of the neck and sides on a uniform dull grey background.

Note not even a hint of lightening on the lower flanks and belly as on a song sparrow...



Also note the lack of anything approaching an eye ring on the mystery bird and the shape of the eye and head and how the eye is set in the head. Those two wing bars too would be expected on a red-wing, but not a song sparrow.

Note too the smaller-headed proportions and the size, that thing is fully as big as a cardinal, if not bigger, again 'xactly like a red-wing.

Birdwatcher

Well it obviously isn't a crow. hope that helps shreck.

I think it's a one eyed, one eared, flying freak of nature. Do you live near a nuclear power plant or anything?

I'd bet my last dollar it's a female Agelaius phoeniceus. I've got a bunch on my feeders here in Oklahoma

Very interesting, could be a blackbird. Do I see a reddish topknot?. Is that something that a female blackbird might have?

What would make it interesting is if it were a western bird that got caught up in some storms. Occasionally we see brown pelicans in S. Az after a hurricane that comes up the baja. Ya never know.

Wing bars aren't normally a reliable identifier, I've seen them in a number of sparrows and slight ones in Songs. That said, the other stuff you said leads me to believe you may be right, esp that beak. Easy to tell the difference in person, but that photo and fu man chu still throw me. Good call.