Re: Vesper Sparrow/Sparrow ID
William Leigh (tern@visuallink.com)
Thu, 8 Apr 1999 21:19:20 -0700
Hello All,
Thanks for all the feedback on the unidentified sparrow I reported two
days ago. I really appreciate the effort.
Today I got a different sort of feedback ... a second chance. The bird was
in the exact same place and was seen at roughly the same time of day i.e. 10
am.The bird is almost definitely a Vesper.
This has been one cooperative sparrow... perching on a fence within 15
feet of the car. This time I was better prepared and got all the necessary
field marks. The gray rump/lower back area I reported earlier was actually
just the lack of dark streaking which is present on the rest of the back.
Today I saw the following field marks:
- White eye ring
- upper mandible was mostly grayish with some pink or lighter areas in the
lower half of the upper mandible. Lower mandible light pinkish/flesh color.
- top of head = dark streaks on grayish perhaps slightly greenish
background. No central or lateral stripes ...just evenly streaked across
top of head.
-moustachial stripe dark and sort of curled up towards back( creating a
sort of flattened "w" shape,
- submoustachial stripe very white and broad and formed a wide "v" shape ,
-malar stripe dark
- white on outertail feathers showed (on folded tail) only on edges when
viewed from above; however when viewed from below the tail was primarily
white with brown area restricted to the center of the tail (when folded). In
flight white outer tail feathers very noticeable.
- very faint wingbars
- rusty shoulder patch visible sometimes not always .... for example the
bird was perched on the fence facing the road and the rusty shoulder patch
was
very visible then after a minute or so the bird turned around and faced the
field -now there was no trace of shoulder patch.....must be just a matter of
how the feathers are folded ? .... I doubt that the bird has the rusty patch
on the left wing
but not on the right.....
-white throat.
- flesh/pinkish legs.
The bird was seen in a farm field where routes 632 (Triple J road) deadends
/ meets 657(Senseny Road) in Clark Co. Va. From the stop sign at the
intersection of the 632 and 657 go ~.2 to .3 of a mile North on 632 till you
see a metal gate in the field on the West side of rt 632. The bird has been
seen there in the fields near the metal gate and perched on the bobwire
fence on either side of the gate.
Thanks again for all the helpful feedback!
William