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A little help IDing a ittle bird, please!

10 years ago

Never seen this bird before today! Now if I can get this Lifer IDed. Heavily dark red/brown breast streaks and along the sides, but not underneath. Same dark colored flat-edged tail. No streaking around the head, just gray and lighter brown in areas. Same size as the Juncos it was ground-feeding with, but fluffed up more. Similar to female Purple Finch but the streaking is much darker and definitely not gray or black. Small beak, not finch-like.

I'm in EC Iowa.

This post was edited by sparky10 on Tue, Jan 7, 14 at 17:25

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Comments (7)

sparky_10
Original Author
10 years ago
I don't know how to post more than one pic in a post; here's another shot.
tmff
10 years ago
I believe you've got a Fox Sparrow there.
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janalyn
10 years ago
I was going to say song sparrow...native birds btw..and beautiful song too.
sparky_10
Original Author
10 years ago
Those two are on my "possibles" list, thank you! It has so many indications of either one. Really looks more like the Fox, but is small like the Song. Just watched it fly, and it has a woodpecker-type movement. My National Geographic bird book says the Song pumps it's tail in flight. Also, the Fox would be quite out of it's winter range, but that's certainly not unheard of.

I'm leaning toward the Song sparrow. Hope I can get a better look at it's head today.
birding_nut
10 years ago
It is definitely a Fox Sparrow.

BN
Aurore
10 years ago
Fox sparrow definitely
sparky_10
Original Author
10 years ago
Thank you! There were four that first day, two the next, and haven't seen any since. Glad they stopped by for the visit!

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