I’ll be in Ulukhaktok for the next week visiting and exploring the high arctic. I’m hoping to return with some more great memories and at least a few interesting wildlife images. In my absence, I thought this would be a great time for a two-part series on sparrows and how to identify them.
“Sparrows” is a sort of blanket term that encompasses 3 different families of birds. I was surprised to learn juncos, towhees, and some european buntings are included under the umbrella term sparrow. Old World sparrows generally refer to the European birds and New World sparrows generally refer to the North American birds.
I read someone refer to sparrows as LBJ recently (little brown jobs) which pretty much sums up the difficulty in identifying one sparrow from another. Most sparrows are small, and some combination of brown, grey, black and white. They come spotted, striped, with colourful crowns, chins, eye-rings and moustaches but we’ll save those fancy bits for next week!
I still have some difficulty identifying sparrows in the field. Particularly if I spot a bird with which I am not already familiar. Many sparrows are easier to identify than others but there are some that can be really difficult to distinguish. One of the best ways to get a sense of what sorts of sparrows you might see is to consult a birding guide. Most guides include a range map which can help you narrow down which birds you are most likely to see in your area.
In Yellowknife, we mostly see birds during breeding season. Non-breeding adults are less common and identifying juveniles is incredibly challenging, in my opinion. Images and descriptions of sparrows in this piece will show the birds in their breeding plumage.
OK! On to the IDs. Let’s start with the main parts of a bird we look at to make an identification: the head, beak, wings, legs, and tail. Some birds have distinctive marks in one of these areas which can help you quickly distinguish them from one another.
A Harris’ sparrow is a good example of a sparrow with distinguishing features. It is mostly grey or brown with a pink bill and pink legs. It has a distinctive black stripe that looks like someone took a paintbrush full of black ink and swiped it from the top of the head to the bottom of their chin. They have a greyish head and a white body with brown wings.
White-crowned sparrows are another pretty easy one to ID as they have a series of black and white stripes across the top of their head. They have a yellow bill and most of the rest of their head and body is grey and their wings are a mottled brown.
The clay coloured sparrow is another pretty easy ID as it is quite light in colour compared to many other sparrows. It has a grey “collar”, pink bill and legs, and a white belly. Its wings are mottled brown. If you look at it face on it appears to have a white X across its face. It has a unique buzz for a song unlike the “whistling” typical of other sparrows.
Chipping Sparrows are identifiable from their song and from their rusty red cap on the top of their head. They are mostly grey with brown wings and a black beak. They have a black eye line, a line which runs horizontally from the beak across the eye toward the back of the head.
Next week we’ll look at some species that can be more difficult to identify and learn more about bird moustaches, bibs, wing bars, and eye rings. Feel free to share and let me know what sparrows you spot in the comments.
See you next week!