Many people refer to sparrows as LBJs, i.e. little brown jobs as though they were not all that pretty or interesting or worth a second look. But note this fox sparrow. It's really rather handsome.
They also have an extraordinary life history. They nest far to the north: Alaska east to Newfoundland and migrate south in the winter. That's not all that unusual, right?
But the largish streaky sparrows are highly variable, divided into four distinct groups or populations, some even list them as four separate subspecies, but there is apparently intermingling where there borders overlap. (You know these things happen. Heck, it's not like they have chaperons to watch over them.)
The four groups—David Allen Sibley lists them as: thick-billed (California), slate-colored (interior west), sooty (Pacific coast) and red (most of the east)—all look different. They range from a lot of gray with a little red, to a lot of red with a little gray. And then there's the odd man out, the sooty that looks, well sooty. Chimney sweep Dick Van Dyke in "Mary Poppins" sooty. This group actually has two subgroups: sooty light and sooty dark.
In my part of the world, we have the red morph, but only in the winter and not in great numbers and they're hard to find even when they are here. I haven't seen one in since I don't remember when despite a conscious effort.
So far, it has out red foxed me, but winter isn't over yet.
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But the largish streaky sparrows are highly variable, divided into four distinct groups or populations, some even list them as four separate subspecies, but there is apparently intermingling where there borders overlap. (You know these things happen. Heck, it's not like they have chaperons to watch over them.)
The four groups—David Allen Sibley lists them as: thick-billed (California), slate-colored (interior west), sooty (Pacific coast) and red (most of the east)—all look different. They range from a lot of gray with a little red, to a lot of red with a little gray. And then there's the odd man out, the sooty that looks, well sooty. Chimney sweep Dick Van Dyke in "Mary Poppins" sooty. This group actually has two subgroups: sooty light and sooty dark.
In my part of the world, we have the red morph, but only in the winter and not in great numbers and they're hard to find even when they are here. I haven't seen one in since I don't remember when despite a conscious effort.
So far, it has out red foxed me, but winter isn't over yet.
•
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