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Chipping Sparrow? (1 Viewer)

Longspur23

Well-known member
I'm not sure, the only sparrows that I have had this winter are Fox and White-Throated. Any ideas? It was under one of my feeders. I had to take the pics through a window so they're not too good, sorry.
 

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What about the bright pink bill? My field guide says House sparrows have a yellowish-gray bill. I had a good look at it through my binoculars, and it resembled a Chipping sparrow, just without the black eye-line.
 
I can't get enough detail on the first pic, so I'm only going by the second. The bill looks much less pink/orange in that one. It's almost like the bird is holding something orangish in the first pic.

I dunno. :shrug: Double wingbars do make it difficult for a House Sparrow. Perhaps a juvenile White-crowned?
 
I have enough trouble with these live, so the picture is a bit unclear to work from. The birds should have a darker line thru the eye. I guess a very young Chipping Sparrow would be close to a House Sparrow, but by this time I think they should be different enough. So most likely House Sparrow.
 
Yeah, the pink bill rules out House Sparrow and it looks too bland-faced for that anyway. My first thought was Field Sparrow, but are the wing bars too distinct for that? Can't see what else it can be, though, and Winston-Salem is certainly within their range. (Great place, by the way - had my first Crispy Creme donuts there!)
 
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Yeah, I think this is a Field Sparrow. Just saw that "complete white eye-ring" was a field mark, and some of the other pics I have show that. Thanks! (BTW: W-S is the home of Krispy Kreme, so I guess there's no better place to get one. Not many things in life are better than one of their fresh plain glazed donuts.)
 
LOL, Trevor! Don't have much field experience with Field Sparrow ;) but I'd add my vote for that as well. This is a more gray bird than I've seen, but that would also account for the black streaking on the mantle to appear to be more prominent.
 
My first thought was field sparrow. Reddish crown, white eye ring, blank look on the face, touch of colour on the sides, pink bill. I'd bet on it.

Scott
 
Field Sparrows is another one that looks obviously different in the field but I have a hard time with pictures. Have only seen a few of them once. OK for field sparrow.
 
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Tero said:
Field Sparrows should have a little dark spot on the chest. I have seen only 2, but they both had it. Picture does not show that. Both were kind of on their own, though one was in a field with different species. The first one I saw was singing so I knew right away it was a new bird.
Field sparrow is clean-breasted. Perhaps you're thinking of the American Tree Sparrow, which is grossly similar but with the dark spot
 
Field and AT Sparrow should be fairly easily separable. Field has a pink bill a much more prominent eyering and a very cute/blank look to the face (hence the baby-faced sparrow tag) due to a lack of or poorly defined postocular or malar stripes. American Tree has the breast spot but as a previous post highlighted an apparent breast spot can often be seen on birds due to the way their feathers are laying.

Luke
 
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Katy Penland said:
Field sparrow is clean-breasted. Perhaps you're thinking of the American Tree Sparrow, which is grossly similar but with the dark spot
That was it , and that was why I removed the post!
 
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