Greetings All:
Nobody should feel all that bad about misidentifying a House Sparrow.
Depending on plumage and lighting there are a lot of species that look pretty
good instead - my favorite is subadult White-crowned Sparrow.
Birding is meant to be fun. Part of fun is having stories to tell. On the very
same day a birding friend ribbed me for misidentifying a Dark-eyed Junco ( on
a power line) as a bluebird - he turned a meadowlark into a Cactus Wren:)
My favorite personal mistake, however, is trying to sort out American Kestrel
from doves - from too far away - while driving - when will I ever learn:)
Regards; Anthony Hewetson
Sent from my iPhone
On Apr 10, 2023, at 9:55 PM, Len Hovey <len_hovey@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
It’s all good. Don’t feel bad at all. Another reminder of how different
even common birds can look due to light, angle, weird camera/optic hiccups
etc.
I have to look two or three times sometimes before I recognize a dove or
Robin standing or perching at a funny angle, puffed up, oddly silhouetted, or
well-camouflaged in foliage. Sometimes you just can’t tell until it flies or
vocalizes.
-Len
On Apr 10, 2023, at 9:16 PM, Melody Huffman <biblebarn3432@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Feel kinda dumb now. I can see it is a female house sparrow. Kinda like
hearing your tire making a knocking sound and you change tires because it
has developed a knot on it. Then later the spare you put on is making the
same sound so you begin to think there is something else wrong with the car.
Only to have the mechanic tell you that you have a bump on the spare.
Hope all enjoyed the laugh.
Melody
On Mon, Apr 10, 2023 at 5:41 PM Melody Huffman <biblebarn3432@xxxxxxxxx>
wrote:
thanks Brad. It was so much smaller than a sparrow. But maybe it is.
On Mon, Apr 10, 2023 at 5:13 PM Brad Shine <sonofshine@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Hi Melody.
To me, this is a female house sparrow. I went ahead and lightened the
photo, decreased contrast and lowered the saturation (which was really
high- resulting in the higher concentration of yellow).
<image_123986672.JPG>
The bill looks heavy, eye stripe with Buffy above, and a white line in the
wing…
The photo under the picture of the egg here looks similar:
https://radfordphenology.weebly.com/house-sparrow.html
Brad Shine
On Mon, Apr 10, 2023 at 4:47 PM Melody Huffman <biblebarn3432@xxxxxxxxx>
wrote:
We went out this afternoon for a bit since no school. We saw Cedar
waxwings at Tech arboretum but the most interesting bird was in our
neighbor's tree as we returned home. Merlin can't identify other than
calling it a bobalink but it isn't that. Any ideas. Smaller than a
housesparrow and the yellow underparts.