-
Welcome to BirdForum, the internet's largest birding community with thousands of members from all over the world. The forums are dedicated to wild birds, birding, binoculars and equipment and all that goes with it.
Please register for an account to take part in the discussions in the forum, post your pictures in the gallery and more.
Sparrow in Northern NJ (1 Viewer)
- Thread starter xyz99
- Start date
The Bird Nuts
Birding Duo
That is a Lincoln's Sparrow with the blue-gray supercilium, buffy malar stripe, thin streaks on buffy flanks, and clean streaking on the back.
Thank you, I was hoping you'd say that. My first one ever!
tom baxter
Well-known member
Looks more like a Swamp Sparrow to me. Lacks the gray back of Lincoln’s and the bill is too big, also much more likely than a Lincoln’s in New Jersey, especially in the spring. Habitat is exactly where you’d be seeing Swamp Sparrows too. Basically in the water, foraging along a grassy edge.
The Bird Nuts
Birding Duo
The streaking on the flanks of this bird is too well-defined for a Swamp. The back color is just fine for a Lincoln's and the really clean lines are good, too. I think the beak appears larger because its head feathers are flattened.
I would be inclined to call it a 'song sparrow'... when in doubt, take the more obvious. For me the facial pattern can be a song or a lincoln, but many times the lincoln's crown is peaking, fluffed up....this one is smooth. That to me would be how I would ID this based on the abundance of song sparrows and the lack of the crown (although it is not always peaked, admittedly).
Why wouldn't it be a song sparrow?
Why wouldn't it be a song sparrow?
The Bird Nuts
Birding Duo
Song Sparrows have larger bills, obvious mustachial stripes, messy streaks on the back, and they're just a different color.
Compare to the bird in this thread: https://www.birdforum.net/showthread.php?t=389739
Compare to the bird in this thread: https://www.birdforum.net/showthread.php?t=389739
You might be correct....jim
birdmeister
Well-known member
My first impression here was Lincoln's, too. I would have thought a Swamp should show a full, bright rusty cap by May 10th, as well as even more rufous wings than this bird.
tom baxter
Well-known member
The rusty cap is actually one of the reasons I thought it was a swamp. I was actually convinced it was a swamp, it just looks like one. But then I started comparing the back streaming of the two species and I’m much less sure. It’s definitely not a song sparrow. This is Lincoln’s/swamp and I’ve been swayed towards Lincoln’s away from my initial impression, although I still find the face, cap and bill to look much more swamp-like in the photo. Those things are more easily distorted Or misinterpreted in the photo as compared to the back streaking. It’s probably a Lincoln’s.
birdmeister
Well-known member
I'd agree that it doesn't look quite like a normal Lincoln's. Once you suggested Swamp, I took a hard look at the crown. I always think of Swamp as a very dark sparrow, though, with a lot of contrast to the cap. I think you can just make out Lincoln's' gray central crown stripe in the photo, and it just seems like the rest of the face is too pale and crisp for Swamp.
Funny angle, though, and I've never seen a Lincoln's at the water's edge.
RafaelMatias
Unknown member
The neatly streaked flanks and pale tipped greater coverts should rule out breeding plumaged Swamp Sparrow?
The Bird Nuts
Birding Duo
It's an obvious Lincoln's with those additional photos. Why weren't those included in the original post?.....
howiewu
Well-known member
Think all the fun we would have missed!
tom baxter
Well-known member
Definitely Lincoln’s.
