A Good Weekend for New Winter Birds

Left: Fox sparrow

I birded both Saturday and Sunday mornings this weekend. Yesterday was warm and sunny; today very cool and overcast.

Yesterday, I walked the chat trail back to the barrow pit in Lake Wichita Park. Today I did the same and then drove over to the Lake Wichita spillway.

I've worked hard to learn the sparrows better over the past few years, and we definitely have a lot of sparrows in our area during the winter. These "LBJ's" (little brown jobs) are often ignored by most beginning birders as they often appear for just brief seconds before diving into the grass or shrubs. You have to know what field marks to look for and you have to see them quickly.

Yesterday, along the chat trail I did see my first two fox sparrows of the year. Fortunately, they attracted my attention by calling. Then it was a matter of continuing to watch the ground in a sheltered area, waiting for them to start scratching around. Today, I saw my first three field sparrows along the chat trail. These delicate little birds are among my favorites. Then over at the spillway, I saw one Harris's sparrow mixed with a flock of white-crowned sparrows. White-crowned sparrows are ubiquitous and it is tempting to go on to something else as soon as you see the first one, but anytime you see a flock of sparrows, do a quick scan of the group as there may be more than one species mixed together.

My bird list for Saturday: mallard, ruddy duck, bufflehead, northern shoveler, green-winged teal, northern pintail, greater yellowlegs, killdeer, ring-billed gull, double-crested cormorant, Cooper's hawk, American coot, pied-billed grebe, northern harrier, downy woodpecker, northern flicker (yellow-shafted), Eurasian collared dove, brown thrasher, northern mockingbird, Carolina chickadee, ruby-crowned kinglet, blue jay, cardinal, yellow-rumped warbler, song sparrow, fox sparrow, white-crowned sparrow, red-winged blackbird, and American goldfinch.

For Sunday: great blue heron, bufflehead, ruddy duck, northern shoveler, redhead duck, green-winged teal, double-crested cormorant, pied-billed grebe, American coot, killdeer, common snipe, ring-billed gull, rock pigeon, Eurasian collared dove, blue jay, cardinal, northern mockingbird, American robin, American goldfinch, red-winged blackbird, great-tailed grackle, common grackle, European starling, spotted towhee, Harris's sparrow, white-crowned sparrow, song sparrow, field sparrow.

This is also the second weekend of Project Feederwatch. Although the count isn't over for the weekend, so far I've had white-winged dove, Eurasian collared dove and Inca dove, as well as house sparrows, juncos, house finches and gold finches. One odd note. I had two white-winged doves were much darker than the others. There were a couple of other different things about them as well. It was the first time I have seen them. It would be nice if I could get a decent picture.

Good birding!

Field Sparrows at My Feeder

Field sparrow photo from National Park Service, Wikimedia Commons

At last week's North Texas Bird and Wildlife Club meeting we were talking about the birds we haven't seen this year (or have seen in fewer numbers), and I lamented that I hadn't had any field sparrows at my feeders so far. They tend to show up late in the winter, but I was getting a little worried.

Well, Thursday I saw my first and over the weekend had two at my feeders that cooperated with the Project Feederwatch count. Although field sparrows are one of the more drab species of sparrows, I like them because they are so delicate looking. They are smaller than the other feeder sparrows, and their pink legs and pale bill help identify them. Although some range maps show field sparrows as a year around resident of this area, I have only seen them in the winter. This is consistent with what the local North Texs Bird and Wildlife Club checklist shows: common from mid-December to early April and a few isolated sitings April - June.

I hope you are lucky enough to have some of these little guys show at your feeders this winter.

Good birding!

Follow Up on Field Sparrows

I can always count on Terry McKee when it comes to having detailed information on sitings in this area. Anyway, her information follows concerning when the species has been observed in this area:

"Field Sparrow is a common winter resident from October 19 to April 10.Other records include May 19, 1991 -2 males singing in eastern part of Wichita County- McKees, June 17, 1982 Wichita County- Pulich"

Good birding!

Winter Sparrows

It's cold this morning. Near 70 yesterday and in the 20's this morning.

One of the special things about winter is the arrival of the winter sparrows. A few years ago I set myself the task of learning the LBJs and have become much better with my identification, although I am by no stretch an expert.

I consider the field sparrow one of my winter feeder favorites. A small sparrow, it has a wide-eyed look due to the distinctive eye ring. I usually have one or two that will come to the feeder each day; today I was excited to have three at one time searching the ground for the seed that I throw out each morning (not that there is much to search for--I am generous in the amount I throw on the ground.)

I decided to look up the species account for the field sparrow on Birds of North America online (http://bna.birds.cornell.edu/bna) and my first surprise was the range map. It showed Wichita Falls in the year-around area of the map. I know I have never seen nor heard a field sparrow in this area during the summer. I have an email out to Terry McKee from the North Texas Bird and Wildlife Club for clarification. She and her sister Debra Halter keep records for this area and publish the bird checklist.

Field sparrows live in much of the eastern United States and don't migrate much. They vacate the very northern portion of their range and their southern range moves south somewhat. Their range is contained within North America--unlike many of our migratory birds, they do not move south into Central or South America.

According to BNA, the field sparrow normally doesn't frequent areas inhabited by humans and is uncommon in the suburbs. I suppose that is why it causes comment when I mention them at my feeders. But I have an unruly yard, next to an unkempt lot near open area. Perhaps that is why I am so lucky.

As is true of many sparrows, they eat primarily grass seed, supplemented by insects in the breeding season. Field sparrows build their nests in tall grasses within a few feet of shrubby vegetation or in the crotches of shrubs or saplings. They may nest multiple times in a season, building a new nest each time. Only the female broods the eggs.

One interesting item I noted in the species account was a record of the field sparrow feigning a wing injury when a predator approached a nest. We think of this in the killdeer--I wonder how many other species of bird demonstrate this behavior?

Another interesting note in the account was that cowbird parasitism was not very successful. Although cowbirds did parasitize field sparrow nests, few of the cowbirds fledged (unfortunately, neither did the baby field sparrows.) Makes you wonder why cowbirds continue to try, doesn't it? It would seem at some point, this behavior would stop. But perhaps the cowbird can't differentiate between one little bird and another.

Good birding!