Is there any final concensus on which ssp this bird is? It seems like several say sooty and others are saying slate-colored. When Lila Fried I saw the bird at around 4:30 this afternoon we couldn't help but notice that it didn't fit well with any of the illustrations in Sibley's books. Though it's definitely uniform brown like a pacific race the rufous tertials, secondaries and and tail, as well as the streaking and patterns of grey in the face fit extremely well with the illustration for the interior west ssp from the illustrated 1996 version of the Beadle/Rising sparrow book. Though this book is relatively outdated, and the plates not 100% accurate, sibley mentions in an inset that the interior west population in the rockies can look like an integrade of "Red" and "Slate-colored." This is what this bird looked like to me. However, the back was awfully uniform, a trait sibley acquaints with sooty.. More thoughts?
Also, the most recent AOU publication of Ornithological Monographs focuses on subspecies, so I found it to be quite appropriate reading today! Jacob Drucker NYC From: [email protected] To: [email protected] Subject: [nysbirds-l] Sooty Fox Sparrow Central Park with 2 more pictures Date: Thu, 13 May 2010 20:55:25 -0400 To add to Phil's post here are links to two more shots of the bird. One with flash one without. I also agree that the bird appears to be an interior western race of "Sooty Fox Sparrow" http://www.lilibirds.com/gallery2/v/recent_work/sooty_fox_sparrow_1.jpg.html http://www.lilibirds.com/gallery2/v/recent_work/sooty_fox_sparrow_2.jpg.html Good birding, David Speiser www.lilibirds.com -- NYSbirds-L List Info: http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsWELCOME http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsRULES ARCHIVES: 1) http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/maillist.html 2) http://birdingonthe.net/mailinglists/NYSB.html 3) http://www.surfbirds.com/birdingmail/Group/NYSBirds-L Please submit your observations to eBird: http://ebird.org/content/ebird/ --
