A little more for consideration:
Habitat: This bird is hanging around in a conifer, typical of a Chipper.
While I have found Tree Sparrows in conifers, they are more typically brush
birds, often in high grass.
Behavior: This bird is hanging around in one area and since it is near a
house with a birder, it is near a feeder. I find tree sparrows to be
highly nomadic and not feeder bums. And, this time of year, I believe that
it would be as unusual to find a single Tree Sparrow, as a single Chipper,
perhaps, even more unusual.
Steve Weston on Quiggley Lake in Eagan, MN
swest...@comcast.net
- Original Message -
From: "Julian Sellers"
To:
Sent: Saturday, November 20, 2010 10:20 PM
Subject: [mou-net] I'm not disputing the ID, but...
I don't think the ID of the Bloomington Chipping Sparrow is as
straightforward as some of the comments have implied. Specifically:
a.. Every photo that shows the breast shows a central spot. It's not
well-defined, but it's not just an artifact of how the feathers are spread.
b.. In the photo at
http://www.flickr.com/photos/54582...@n02/5172266613/in/photostream/, I see
a bi-colored bill, not an all yellowish bill. The lower mandible is
definitely light in color, but the upper looks dark. In the the photo at
http://www.flickr.com/photos/54582...@n02/5192733225/sizes/l/in/photostream/,
the bill looks dark.
c.. At
http://ohiogeologyandbiodiversity.blogspot.com/2009/01/chipping-sparrow-endures-ohio-winter.html
there are photos of a Chipping Sparrow in Ohio in January. That bird has a
two-toned bill. The photographer notes that as an important field mark of
Chipping Sparrow.
d.. In the Bloomington photos, I don't see a well-defined brown cheek
patch as on the Ohio bird. Could that be due to a difference in age or
gender? Or has the Bloomington bird not yet molted into full winter
plumage?
e.. To me, the most Chippie-like field mark on the Bloomington bird is the
apparently black eye line (not rusty as in American Tree Sparrow), including
the dark lore, in the photo at
http://www.flickr.com/photos/54582...@n02/5192733225/sizes/l/in/photostream/.
Again, I'm not challenging the ID, but for this birder there's plenty of
room for confusion here.
Julian
St. Paul
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