Wednesday, May 09, 2007

White Crowned Sparrow

Last night about 8:00, as Megan and I were sitting on our front porch, we saw a White Crowned Sparrow. It was eating the bird seed thrown in our street by our neighbors who love feeding birds. I wouldn't have noticed this bird if I hadn't been watching a gray squirrel building its nest through my binoculars. Although White Crowned sparrows are not rare migrants, most sparrows that feed in our street our the non-native house sparrow. I let Megan have a look at the sparrow, and she said something like, "It looks like it has a skunk haircut." Sure enough, the white crowned has three white stripes on top of its head, separated by two black stripes. This is a very cool bird that I would speculate that many backyard bird feeders just pass off as a house sparrow if they are not observing closely. I know I would have done the same had I not been watching the gray squirrel. Another species to add to our list of birds seen around our home.

Tom

1 comment:

  1. It did have a skunk haircut! I love that you and I see different things when we look at the same animal or plant. ;-)

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