It was cold and overcast yesterday and there were not many birds visible, with the notable exception of sparrows. Sparrows were as active as ever, though most of the time I could only hear them and not see them. They seem to like to rot about in the underbrush most of the time.
I was really happy when this White-throated sparrow (Zonotrichia albicollis) popped up for a moment and I was able to get this image. I love the facial pattern and colors of this bird, which seems to have a goatee much like my own. (My goatee started out with salt-and-pepper color, but increasingly has become mostly salt).
When researching this bird, I learned that there is another version (morph) of this bird that has brown and tan head stripes, instead of black and white. I will have to look even more closely at my photos of the White-throated sparrow, which has become more common the past few weeks, and see if I have managed to capture any images of the tan-striped variant.
© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.
Wonderful! Kind
Thanks. I enjoy watching the smaller birds that get a lot less attention than the larger, brighter-colored ones.
Wonderful! Kind regards from Austria.
Thanks. I am glad that you liked the shot. A lot of people ignore sparrows, because they are common, but I find them to be beautiful.
such a wonderful post and a lovely little bird !
Thanks. I gradually am improving in identifying these beautiful little birds, which I used to categorize simply as “little brown birds.”
Great shot, Mike, with that perfect Fall background. As you know, we get White-crowned Sparrows out west – White-throated are rather uncommon here and always a treat to see.
Thanks, Joe. I constantly remind myself of the fact that what is ordinary for me is unusual and exotic for others. One of my readers, for example, loves my photos of cardinals, birds that are with us all year here in Virginia, but are nonexistent where she lives.
He’s a beauty. An appropriately-named bird, with that white throat patch.
And, of course, it’s nice that the patch is so distinctive that it makes it easy for me to identify the species.
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