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A little help IDing a ittle bird, please!

11 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
11 years ago
I don't know how to post more than one pic in a post; here's another shot.
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tmff
11 years ago
I believe you've got a Fox Sparrow there.
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I was thinking wood thrush when I first saw it. My bird book says wood thrushes are summer birds in my area (southeast Georgia), so then I thought maybe a hermit thrush? Its tail is a redish brown color. I am not very good at this lol, but at least its fun!
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It is an American Tree Sparrow. The two white wing bars, yellowish beak, gray face, and location point to tree sparrow. A Chipping Sparrow in winter in eastern Canada would be an exceptional sighting. See link below for another pic of this great winter sparrow for comparison. BN Here is a link that might be useful: American Tree Sparrow
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Thank you so much TMFF! Unfortunately this bird was there for only a split second before it took off so I didn't have time to observe any of its behavior. It was also photographed through a very thick window so I didn't hear any vocalizing. There HAS been some bird in the area recently calling over and over again...sounds a little like "Kerry, Kerry..." or "keeery, keeery" but maybe what I'm hearing is "phoe-be?" and maybe it's him! (Her?) hmm... here is the only other photo I got of it. I wasnÃ¢ÂÂt going to post it because the resolution is so poor but maybe it will still be informative in some way!
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janalyn
11 years ago
I was going to say song sparrow...native birds btw..and beautiful song too.
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sparky_10
Original Author
11 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.
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birding_nut
11 years ago
It is definitely a Fox Sparrow.

BN
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Aurore
11 years ago
Fox sparrow definitely
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sparky_10
Original Author
11 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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