Female house sparrow? Bird ID question

Factual Questions
1

I’ve been trying to get better at identifying LBBs (not to mention seagulls, warblers, hawks … and pretty much anything else that isn’t bright yellow, red, or blue! ;))

There is a small brown sparrow-like bird that frequents my feeders. I can’t identify anything else that it might be other than a female house sparrow. Solid light grey breast, with essentially the same color continuing up the throat and over the entire head. No really obvious cap, head stripes, or eye bands. Seems noticeably smaller than the other sparrows. Pretty quick and “nervous” appearing - flits about rather than “posing.”

Any thoughts of what it might be other than a female house sparrow? I think my delay in identifying this bird came from the fact that most sparrows aren’t sexually dimorphic. Of course the English House Sparrow isn’t a sparrow - or from England for that mater! :stuck_out_tongue:

I’ve somewhat recently been trying to improve at identifying birds, and I often come up with difficulty narrowing it down between a couple of options. For example, I saw a couple of birds recently - my best guess is that one was a lesser tern and the other a common. But I’m not absolutely, 100% rock-solid certain. Tho I saw them on different days, I’m certain the one was considerably smaller than the other. But I did not get good looks at the borders of the black cap, bill and foot color on the smaller one.

How certain do you think an ID should be before a bird earns a spot on your list?

2

House sparrows are sexually dimorphic:

The one on the left is a female.

3

The description sounds consistent with a female House Sparrow, except that it wouldn’t necessarily be smaller than the rest of the sparrows. However, it’s impossible to give a definitive description of most LBBs in the absence of a photograph (or a location).

Regarding the terns, size differences are notoriously difficult to estimate in the absence of a direct comparison. I don’t include species on my life list unless I can confirm a diagnostic field mark. (For local or daily lists it’s OK to go on the basis of probability; that is, given the choice of two species, go with the more likely one.)

4

Maybe a female house finch? They are less strongly marked than sparrows.

5

Most native sparrows are smaller and more nervous than house sparrows, but if you’re only seeing male house sparrows at your feeder, you probably have female house sparrows too. If you have any doubt, go into the city and you won’t have trouble finding flocks of house sparrows with nothing else mixed in, and there’ll be plenty of females there. If you bring something for them to eat they’ll be very eager to let you inspect them closely!

Assuming you’re in the eastern US, the field sparrow is only other sparrow-thing that’s as drab as your description, and they don’t usually come to feeders. They also sound absolutely nothing like house sparrows, although song sparrows do have a call (“chip note” in that link) that sounds confusingly similar to house sparrows (“wheea calls” in that link).

6

Very common at feeders where they occur, but they have a streaky breast rather than a solid one.

7

Thanks. I’m just starting my list, and am trying to be pretty strict about what I enter on it. I guess I can be kinda anal about gravitating towards things I can be SURE of - one reason I like examining and experiencing nature, as opposed to so much “opinion” which is prevalent in society. I’m mainly just keeping the list as another wrinkle intended to make me be a little more systemmatic and accurate in my observations.

So, for example, despite seeing a ton of warblers last month, I only entered a yellow and a black and white, because I wasn’t POSITIVE about my other IDs. Next year I’ll be more prepared.

I spend my time between NW IN and the Chicago burbs. Saw the “terns” within the last 2 weeks at the Indiana Dunes. Got really good looks at both, but did not have a guide or binos with me, so when I went to look them up later, I was not sure about specific marks.

The little one was really noticeable, as it was very small - not much larger than a big robin. WAY smaller than the gulls or a crow. It also had an unusual, flight - very stop and go, with abrupt turns, hovering, looking down and around. It also uttured a hoarse “creek” while flying. Tail was very deeply forked. Really an impressive bird, but I did not get the leg/bill color, or the specific cap outline. That was the only day on which I saw that bird - saw a couple of pairs - or the same pair several times.

The larger one, well, I figure it was either a common or an arctic. I looked it up after the first time I saw it. The second time, I noted the wing tips underneath were quite dark. Certainly didn’t see anything that screamed out like “grey highlights” on the upper wings. Plus, I always tend to suspect that what I see is most likely to be the bird that is the most common for my location.

The more I try to birdwatch, the more impressed I am at how difficult it is. A logical next step for me would be to seek out some experienced birders, or go on some organized walks. I’m sure there are plenty of both up at the dunes. But for now I’m kinda stumbling along trying to see what I can do on my own.

Even just reflecting robins, starlings, etc, I’ve got my list up around 80. Mostly birds I’ve positively IDed w/in the last yr or 2, with a couple of exceptions like the Cal condors I saw in the Grand Canyon some years back.

I always enjoy reading your posts, Colibri.

8

That actually sounds pretty good for Least Tern. (I regard flight style and calls as field marks that can be just important for ID as plumage/leg color etc.) Least Tern is rare in Indiana but does breed in small numbers.

The two most common medium-sized terns in your area are Common and Forster’s, both of which have darker undersides to the wing tips than Arctic. Arctic is quite rare away from the Atlantic and Pacific coasts. This said, apparently one was seen at the Indiana Dunes a few days ago, as well as a Least Tern nearby. However, I wouldn’t count and Arctic so far out of normal range without a good view of field marks.

Always the best practice. One of the major sins of beginning birders is just looking at the book and not paying attention to range maps or seasonal abundance. To confirm a rare species, you should always try to “prove” why it isn’t a more common species.

Thanks.

9

Actually, I’m compiling an impressive list of new species that I have discovered, which are not identified in any of the guides. I’m sure the birding and scientific communities will be knocked on their collective ears when I release my findings! :wink:

10

Yeah, that even happens to me in an area I’m not familiar with. :wink: Field guides can’t illustrate all possible variants (especially immatures and rare plumages), and as a practical matter have to simplify things. Sometimes you’ll see a bird that seems to have field marks of two different species or is intermediate. Some birds just go on the list as “unidentified tern” and so forth.

11

I’ve had trouble identifying terns too. We have Black Terns around here, which are pretty cool.

And I love the word “binos.” :slight_smile:

12

Those juveniles get me every time! A colleague of mine was in Africa for a photo safari, and since I’m the office bird nerd, she keeps asking me to ID the avians in her photos. Despite the fact that I’ve never been to Africa, I think I’m doing pretty well! But a juvie raptor of some sort really threw me (it wasn’t a great photo either). Then there was a juvenile longclaw (Macronyx) which didn’t have much yellow in its plumage yet, very tricky, until I noticed the ridiculous length of the claws! Now THAT is a field mark!

13

Juvenile raptors are some of the worst. Add in an unfamiliar area and a bad photo, and fuggeddaboudit!:slight_smile:

14

Also, this experience is too familiar to me - I spot a bird, rehearse to myself the identifying marks and behaviors I can make out, often then writing them down in my field notes, and then consult a guide. Sometimes, I look and look and then (!) I spot the exact bird I had seen, only to discover that they’re found only in San Diego, or Alaska, or something, i.e. not in the midwest. Ok, I guess that wasn’t what I saw. grrrrrr

15

Or you just get lucky and see lots of vagrant birds. :slight_smile:

One time my sister and I saw a bird we didn’t recognize. We tried to record a video of it with my sister’s camera, but it wasn’t a clear shot. But my sister did manage to record me givong a description of the bird. We looked in two bird guides, and eventually were able to identify the bird.

Looking in more than one field guide can help - sometimes a picture isn’t too clear in one guide, but there’s a better picture in another guide.