Hi all, Two days ago I posted a report about the Nelson's Sparrows on Randall's Island. In my post I linked to one full-frame photo of one Ammodramus sparrow. When a couple of better birders than me looked at the photo they raised questions and asked if I was sure it was a Nelson's Sparrow. To tell you the truth, I wasn't. Brian and I had a discussion about the id, and I was befuddled by the look of this bird. Despite that, I posted the photo and called it a Nelson's Sparrow.
Since then several people have looked at full-crop images of the bird and now the consensus is that the bird I photographed is not a Nelson's Sparrow. Instead it looks like a Saltmarsh Sparrow, but the possibility of a hybrid has also been raised. For those of you who are on Facebook you can check out the discussion in the New York Birders group. Here is a link to the set of images of this bird on Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/landp/sets/72157631798771213/ Have a look. It is an interesting bird. "Ammodramus redactus" Anders Peltomaa Manhattan -- NYSbirds-L List Info: http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsWELCOME http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsRULES http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsSubscribeConfigurationLeave.htm ARCHIVES: 1) http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/maillist.html 2) http://www.surfbirds.com/birdingmail/Group/NYSBirds-L 3) http://birdingonthe.net/mailinglists/NYSB.html Please submit your observations to eBird: http://ebird.org/content/ebird/ --
