Date: Sun, 3 Nov 2002 17:54:45 -0500 Reply-To: Maryland Birds & Birding Sender: Maryland Birds & Birding From: Bonnie Ott Subject: Re: Carroll County Sparrow MIME-version: 1.0 Content-type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1 Content-transfer-encoding: 7BIT ----- Bonnie: > > As a novice at sparrows, I am referring to the book Sparrows and Buntings - > A Guide to the Sparrows and Buntings of North America and the World. As sparrow books go the above mentioned book is fine but there have been better publications since that one was issued. The two books by Rising - the new photo sparrow guide and his original are wonderful. Sibley is the best field guide to sparrows - my "bible". I learned on Chan's golden guide which is good and I also like Peterson (the revised edition is best). I cannot say a good thing about the sparrow pages of GEO. I usually just recommend ripping them out and enjoy the rest of the book. "Advanced Birding" by Kaufman is well worth the read too. I am still awaiting (2 years now) the video soon to come on Sparrows by the couple that did "Watching Warblers" and "Watching waders", last I heard it is due this winter?? > seems that the First-winter Swamp Sparrow (plate 52) also has fine streaking > on a buffy breast, This fall the two birds that had me "double-take" for second looks were both young Swamps. I feel they can be the most variable and beautiful sparrow. Some have fairly distinct streaking and some have breast spots. Some have very gray breasts and some have more creamy color. Those bronze-rusty wings are a great help on ID but not always seen from the front. The flanks are also a lovely "toasted marshmellow" brown , again for a side view. Most swamps show a little eye ring too. The overall appearance on swamps is generally "dark, dark, dark" especially in flight as they flush away. {Swamps and Lincoln's flush almost exactly alike and back color is how I seperate them- Songs have a floppier tailed appearance as they flush and with practice is easy to differentaite. All 3 have very distinct "chip" notes from each other.} I rarely see Lincoln's or swamps more than 10 feet off the ground. Swamps seem to stay the lowest. Songs sometimes move higher in saplings-10-15 feet and rarely they will go higher. If I get a bird that flushes to the TOPS of a tall tree it is usually savannah or chipping. Vespers also go high. as does the Juvenile Field Sparrow (plate 75b), although > the face and cap are not that similar for the latter. Juvenile Fields are streaked but it is only for a very short time. There pink bills and wing bars and bold eye-ring seperate them from the previous two. (Baby Grasshoppers are also streaked. Flat head and short tail are a nig help- they often flush like little meadowlarks with stiff wings.) Is Jizz pretty > important for the Lincoln's? I think Jizz is the most important feature on sparrow ID. Probably for all birds though. Bonnie Ott Howard County Field Trip Chair Ellicott City, MD ======================================================================= To leave the MDOsprey list, send e-mail to listserv@home.ease.lsoft.com with the following message in line 1: signoff mdosprey ======================================================================= =========================================================================