Fox Sparrow

If you're not a bird-watcher you're probably surprised that there are so many kinds of sparrow and that they are so distinctive if you look at them a little closely. Here's another, a Fox Sparrow photographed near Esquimalt Lagoon.

Sparrows

In the same bit of woods near Esquimalt Lagoon where I photographed the woodpecker and hummingbird in yesterday's post I had a nice encounter with two kinds of sparrow. Above is one of our commoner species, usually singing his heart out, a Song Sparrow. This one looks to be in a pensive mood. Below is a Fox Sparrow.

Leucistic Fox Sparrow

I first caught a glimpse of this bird a few weeks ago while he was hopping around in the back yard. Then I saw him again at the bird feeder but both times he came and went too quickly for me to capture a photo. I didn't know what kind of bird this was, only that it was something I had not seen before. Yesterday he visited the feeder again and I had my camera nearby to get the above photo. I sought some identification help from a local bird-watcher's site and learned a new word. This is not a new species but a genetic pigment variation known as leucism. The bird above is a leucistic Fox Sparrow. Leucism is a little like albinism but not quite the same. For the technical details I'll refer you to this article in Wikipedia. The small photo to the right is a normal Fox Sparrow.

At the Feeder

Fern recently installed a bird feeder in the back yard and I took some time yesterday to observe the surprisingly busy traffic. As well as trying out some new shooting techniques it also enabled me to continue with my quest to learn to distinguish all those little brown birds that populate our environment. Below are four that I have tentatively identified. If you're a birder, please feel free to correct me as I'm still not very confident when it comes to these little brown birds.

Mistakenly identified as a Pine Siskin. (See note * below)	House Finch
Fox Sparrow	Dark-eyed Junco

* Re: Top left photo - The Pine Siskin is similar to this but after looking at various field guides I feel quite sure this is actually a female House Finch. The red-capped male House Finches are relatively easy to id and since they are regular visitors in the same flocks, this adds additional weight to the case for this being a female of the species.