White-throated sparrow

Feeds:: Posts; Comments

White-throated sparrow

November 5, 2013 by Mike Powell

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.

Posted in Autumn, Birds, Nature, Photography, Portraits, wildlife | Tagged Alexandria VA, Canon 50D, Canon 70-300mm telephoto zoom lens, Huntley Meadows Park, sparrow, white-throated sparrow, Zonotrichia albicollis | 13 Comments

13 Responses

on November 5, 2013 at 7:17 am | Reply absengeralois

Wonderful! Kind
- on November 21, 2013 at 5:07 am | Reply Mike Powell
  
  Thanks. I enjoy watching the smaller birds that get a lot less attention than the larger, brighter-colored ones.
on November 5, 2013 at 7:18 am | Reply absengeralois

Wonderful! Kind regards from Austria.
- on November 5, 2013 at 7:20 am | Reply Mike Powell
  
  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.
on November 5, 2013 at 8:10 am | Reply hihowsyou25

such a wonderful post and a lovely little bird !
- on November 6, 2013 at 6:35 am | Reply Mike Powell
  
  Thanks. I gradually am improving in identifying these beautiful little birds, which I used to categorize simply as “little brown birds.”
on November 5, 2013 at 8:31 am | Reply joeschelling

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.
- on November 6, 2013 at 6:34 am | Reply Mike Powell
  
  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.
on November 7, 2013 at 9:43 am | Reply Sue

He’s a beauty. An appropriately-named bird, with that white throat patch.
- on November 7, 2013 at 7:24 pm | Reply Mike Powell
  
  And, of course, it’s nice that the patch is so distinctive that it makes it easy for me to identify the species.
on November 8, 2013 at 9:07 am | Reply Playing in a puddle | Mike Powell

[…] may be the brown and tan striped variant, rather than the black and white one that I featured in a posting earlier this […]
on November 22, 2013 at 12:48 pm | Reply Sparrow Watching | emilykarn

[…] White-throated sparrow (michaelqpowell.wordpress.com) […]
on November 23, 2013 at 10:01 pm | Reply Camo Demo | Photomiser

[…] White-throated sparrow […]