There are a ton of these little bird around, like we never see just one or two, more like twenty or more at a time. They look black, but might really be a dark brown because they’re not shiny the way crows and grackles are. No obvious markings of other colors, just plain little brown birds that look like… well, plain little brown birds. At least to my old, rather faded vision. (Which makes it super hard to look them up in those ‘ID your birds’ sites.)
This is in Massachusetts, a Boston suburb BTW. They seem to be around year round.
They’ll swoop in and land on a lawn, poke around for a bit, hopping about, looking for whatever and then all of sudden they’ll all take flight, just to land again a few houses away, maybe, or to zoom off out of sight.
These birds are small, way smaller than robins. To give you an idea, picture an ordinary chain link fence. A flock of these birds will settle into the fence, each one sitting in one of the ‘diamond’ cells of the fence, one foot on each of the two bottom sides of the diamond with their body inside the cell with their heads near the top of the cell. They seem to fit so perfectly that the chain link fence might have been expressly designed to be a display case for them.
In fact, that’s why we call them ‘Burger King’ birds for want of a proper name. The closest BK to our house had a chain link fence on two sides of the parking lot, and almost always at noon time (the only time of day I was there) there would be dozens of these birds slotted into the cells, waiting. People would toss bits of their buns, or pieces of fries, onto the hoods of their cars and one of the birds would instantly zoom in to make off with their prize.
So…any idea what our Burger King birds might actually be?
Little brown birds (LBB), like little brown mushrooms (LBM) are near impossible to ID without more info, and ideally a pic. Sparrows, wrens, finches, all are sometimes described as LBBs.
Starlings are shiny like crows. Thinking they could be juncos (matte dark sparrow-sized) but they summer in Canada; my flock just arrived last month. And they rarely perch on anything, being ground dwellers.
I’ve tried to get a photo, but all I have is a cell phone, and I haven’t been able to get close enough for the birds to be much more than little brown blobs.
I’m sure they’re not starlings, because we have plenty of starlings around, too, and the BBs are not them. Also not juncos. We used to have plenty of them in the past, but not so many lately. And they have those white bellies, right? These birds are brown top and bottom, tip to tail.
I’ve tried looking at pix of common birds in the area, with special attention to wrens, finches, and sparrows. None of them look like great matches. There was a great description of the behavior of one finch that seemed much like what I’ve seen – but the only finches I’ve been aware of around here are Gold finches, and that’s a definite No Way.
Maybe I should put an appeal on the neighborhood website. Perhaps we have a devoted birdwatcher who can answer off the top of their head.
Tiny birds traveling in a big flock makes me think of waxwings. But they’re fruit eaters, and I don’t think they’d hang around begging at a parking lot.
