Song Sparrow or Fox Sparrow?

Song Sparrow ("Rusty" form), Beaverton, Oregon. 21 January, 2013 by Greg Gillson.

The following discussion pertains to separating the Rusty Song Sparrow found west of the Cascades in the Pacific Northwest from the Sooty Fox Sparrow, a wintering species that breeds in coastal Alaska and southward through western British Columbia, sparsely to the Olympic Peninsula of Washington.

This discussion is less apt for Song Sparrows east of the Cascades, and does not apply to summer breeding Fox Sparrows--Thick-billed Fox Sparrows in the Oregon Cascades and southward into SW Oregon and NW California, nor the Slate-colored Fox Sparrow of the Washington Cascades, Great Basin ranges, and Rocky Mountains. [See footnote.]

Both Song Sparrow and Fox Sparrow are found across the North American continent and are highly variable. Beginners are often confused by sparrows, in general. Even experienced visitors from out of the region are frequently confused, as our Song and Fox Sparrows look quite different from these species elsewhere.

The identification of sparrows requires paying special attention to and learning the names of the feather tracts on the head. [See "Advanced birding means learning the basics."]

Fox Sparrow ("Sooty" form), Forest Grove, Oregon. 8 December 2007 by Greg Gillson.

These are the two darkest and rusty-brown colored streak-breasted sparrows in the Pacific Northwest. Here's a quick-glance way of separating them. The head of Song Sparrow (photo below) is gray with rusty brown stripes. The bill is dark gray. This is in contrast to the evenly chocolate brown head of Fox Sparrow (photo above) that only shows a hint of stripes, if any. The lower mandible is bright yellow, in contrast to the dark upper half of the bill. The Fox Sparrow is large with ample square tail, towhee-sized; the Song Sparrow is smaller with rounded tail.

There are other field marks, but the marks just mentioned are easy to remember to get you started.

Song Sparrow ("Rusty" form), Forest Grove, Oregon. 27 November 2008 by Greg Gillson.

For practice in naming the markings of the Song Sparrow's head above, we'll start at the top of the head and work down through the eye to the throat. Here goes. The very center of the crown has a thin gray stripe from the bill over the top of the head. See it? That's the median crown stripe. It goes right over the middle (median) of the crown. Next is a wide brown lateral crown stripe. Lateral is "on the side" and above the broad gray eyebrow stripe. Actually most of the face is gray. There is brown eyestripe through the eye back over the top of the ear coverts. The ear coverts (behind and below the eye) are gray, the lower border of the ear coverts is brown. That's the mustache line and it starts from the gape of the bill ("corner of the mouth"). The submustachial stripe ("below the mustache") is white. There is a broad flaring brown lateral throat stripe.The throat is white. These terms are illustrated in the introduction to most field guides.

Across the continent, despite large variations in darkness or paleness of plumage and overall size, all Song Sparrows have the same basic face pattern.

If you compare with the Fox Sparrow photo above, you'll see that you can't easily see any patterns that you can name. The whole head is rather dark gray brown. The crown (general top of the head) is more dark brown and the sides of the head are more gray. There is some white mixed with brown on the throat, and brown and white unpatterned streaks on the lower face and ear coverts. But, again, nothing that you could name with the clear facial markings terms like in the Song Sparrow.

Both sparrows are found in dense blackberry tangles and brush. The Song Sparrow also likes wetlands and marshes; the Fox Sparrow is more common in clearcuts in the foothills, but there is complete overlap. The Rusty Song Sparrows are resident west of Cascades, though other paler forms may occur in winter. Other, slightly paler and grayer Song Sparrows breed east of the Cascades. The main bulk of wintering Sooty Fox Sparrows in the Pacific Northwest arrive in October and remain until April.

Song Sparrows respond immediately and excitedly to pishing. [For more on pishing, see "The secret to my birding success."] They fly right up to you, out in the open, often responding with their squeaky "chimp" call note. They stay with you as long as you keep pishing. Fox Sparrows, on the other hand, take a bit more coaxing. They take a while to respond. However, if you whistle a pygmy owl imitation or imitate their harsh "check" call note they usually come out into the open to respond with the same call. Again, they tend to stay in the open once they finally respond.

[Footnote: The Thick-billed and Slate-colored Fox Sparrows that summer in the Pacific NW tend to have almost entirely pale gray heads with brown marks on the ear coverts. Their wings and tail are redder than the Sooty Fox Sparrows. They arrive in April and depart in September. Their call notes are a sharp metalic "chink," similar to White-crowned Sparrow or California Towhee. Thick-billed Fox Sparrows like ceanothus and manzanita scrub among regrowing pine seedlings 5-10 years after a clearcut. Slate-colored Fox Sparrows tend to be found in damp mountain seeps and creek bottoms. Song Sparrows east of the Cascades are paler gray and brown, but the head pattern is same as the Song Sparrow described above.]

Field-friendly bird sequenceChickadee and Wren-like Songbirds

Black-capped Chickadee, Hillsboro, Oregon February 1, 2009 by Greg Gillson.

The 13 categories of North American birds listed in the Field-friendly bird sequence: Part II are:

Swimming Waterbirds
Flying Waterbirds
Wading Waterbirds
Chicken-like Birds
Raptors
Miscellaneous Landbirds
Aerial Landbirds
Flycatcher-like Birds
Thrush-like Songbirds
Chickadee and Wren-like Songbirds
Warbler-like Songbirds
Sparrow and Finch-like Songbirds
Blackbird-like Songbirds

A beginner should be able to quickly place a bird they see into one of these categories.

Chickadees, nuthatches, bushtit, creeper, wrentit, wrens, and gnatcatchers make up this grouping of small, plump, active birds found in wooded and brushy habitats. Chickadees and nuthatches frequent bird feeders.

White-breasted Nuthatch. Hillsboro, Oregon. March 13, 2009 by Greg Gillson.

Brown Creeper. Hillsboro, Oregon. March 13, 2009 by Greg Gillson.

Bewick's Wren. Hayward, Oregon. May 16, 2008 by Greg Gillson.

Blue-gray Gnatcatcher. San Diego, California. October 31, 2008 by Greg Gillson.

Wrentit. Lincoln City, Oregon, July 30, 2011 by Greg Gillson.

Bushtit. Hillsboro, Oregon. September 1, 2008 by Greg Gillson.

eBird best practicesGet to know your local Reviewer

In the last year eBird acceptance and participation continues to increase--at least it seems so to me. Most birders know what eBird is; many are using it.

As you bird in different areas you are likely to see some unusual species or high numbers that trip the eBird filter. Soon thereafter, you get an email with the subject: "Question about your [bird name] observation in eBird." Rather than shuffle these off to your spam filter (kidding!) look at these emails from eBird Reviewers as a chance to get to know an expert in an area.

OK, first off, it is possible that the local Reviewer is NOT the most expert person on the bird status of that county. But they were the most expert to volunteer to be the eBird Reviewer for that county. So, when Oregon started getting eBird Reviewers, I was initially given about 12 counties. However, 5 of those counties were in NE Oregon--a rural area with few birders. I had books on status of birds in the area, but there were many species whose status I was uncertain. I was so happy when local NE Oregon Trent Bray agreed to be Reviewer for those counties.

That leaves me with 5 counties in NW Oregon. I consider myself the expert in one of those counties, and have considerable experience birding in the others. Nevertheless, Mike Patterson in Clatsop County is the local expert in that county. He expresses no interest in being eBird Reviewer for his home county. I don't blame him; it is a bit of work that you have to take from someplace else (like actually watching birds).

Mike sometimes gives me "status updates" when he disagrees with where the filter levels are set. One of his observations was that the filter levels seem like they were set by someone from "out of town." Of course, that's true. The county filter levels were set initially with state-wide status and then refined from there--several counties lumped as one, then individual counties spit from them. There is always more work to be done. Reviewers will be happy to reset filters if you suggest reasonable limits. But each species in each county has it own filter settings.

Another observation that Mike made was that the filter levels seemed set for "average" birders rather than the actual county status. Yes, true. Hard-to-identify species generally have their filter numbers set to trip at a lower number than the actual status. For instance, I set Thayer's Gulls in Lincoln County, Oregon to trip with perhaps 10 birds, when over 50 are sometimes possible. However, inexperienced birders can easily misidentify hybrid Glaucous-winged x Western Gulls (perhaps the most common winter gull along the northern Oregon coast) as Thayer's. In such a case, I mark in the Review Tool as "unexceptional" tallies of Thayer's Gulls from birders whose expertise I know. But I am also able to look at the whole list and see if they have all the gulls in the correct proportions. If I don't know the person and the numbers of other gulls don't seem right, then I send them an email ("Question about your [bird name] observation in eBird") asking for more details. As an eBird Reviewer I can tell a lot about a person's expertise by looking at their list and number of species.

Now that I've gone off on a tangent, let me bring it back to you getting to know the Reviewer. This is important: when you are entering your sightings into the eBird checklist, every time the automatic filter says something like "That's an unusual bird! Are you sure?" a real person (eBird Reviewer) will be looking at the record to verify it.

If you don't leave any comments the Reviewer will send you an email asking for more details. We want plumage and behavior descriptions. However, if you can add just the clinching field marks you used to your comments when entering the sighting, that's often enough that the Reviewer doesn't have to send you an email to get clarification (not that the Reviewer minds--that's their job).

There is a "canned" message, but most Reviewers will personalize it. Some Reviewers don't like to "lead" a report by suggesting an alternative bird, but I see nothing wrong with saying: 'you reported this bird which is very rare here at this time of year, yet your list is missing a common look-a-like bird. Could it have been the common bird, instead?' Something like that. Or, 'wow! That's a high number. Can you verify that it isn't a typo?'

Most (but not all) eBird Reviewers are willing and happy to share their knowledge. When they contact you to verify one of your sightings, look at it as an opportunity to learn status, distribution, and ID of local birds. Be open to suggestions (not defensive), ask questions, get to know your local Reviewer and improve your birding!

Where is summer?

Depressed Meadowlark

My trip to the beach last week produced some good bird sightings. By that I mean that I saw some birds I hadn't seen for a while and that I was delighted to see. What I didn't mean was that I saw these birds very well. I felt like I needed a flashlight to go birding at noon.

Well it is winter. At 45 degrees latitude you subtract 23 degrees (tilt of earth on axis) in December. At NOON the sun is only 22 degrees above the southern horizon. Add layers of dark drizzly clouds. Make it damp and foggy. It always feels like dusk in winter. Not dawn--that implies that if you wait it will get lighter. No, dusk. You better look now because it will be too dark to see if you wait.

I love Oregon--the ocean, mountains, deserts, fields, and forests. I live in western Oregon in the verdant valleys below the temperate rain forests. I love it especially from May-July, when it is sunny and warmer, yet not too hot. Later September and October are nice, too. Frankly, though, even though it is the winter rains that make the rest of they year so pleasant and green, I feel like the depressed-looking meadowlark above... I can't wait until summer!

Field-friendly bird sequenceThrush-like Songbirds

Hermit Thrush, Lava Lake, Oregon June 12, 2008 by Greg Gillson.

The 13 categories of North American birds listed in the Field-friendly bird sequence: Part II are:

Swimming Waterbirds
Flying Waterbirds
Wading Waterbirds
Chicken-like Birds
Raptors
Miscellaneous Landbirds
Aerial Landbirds
Flycatcher-like Birds
Thrush-like Songbirds
Chickadee and Wren-like Songbirds
Warbler-like Songbirds
Sparrow and Finch-like Songbirds
Blackbird-like Songbirds

A beginner should be able to quickly place a bird they see into one of these categories.

Included in the Thrush-like Songbirds are shrikes, thrashers and mockingbirds, thrushes and bluebirds, dipper, pipits, larks, tanagers, orioles, meadowlarks.

Medium-sized land birds with generally plump bodies and long tails. The American Robin, Mockingbird, and Meadowlark are familiar representatives of this taxonomically diverse group that have a similar body shape.

Northern Mockingbird. San Diego, California. March 7, 2008  by Greg Gillson.

Western Meadowlark. Malheur NWR, Oregon. May 29, 2010 by Greg Gillson.

American Robin. Hillsboro, Oregon. May 11, 2008 by Greg Gillson.

Western Bluebird. Beaverton, Oregon. March 19, 2011 by Greg Gillson.

Western Tanager. Malheur NWR, Oregon. May 29, 2010 by Greg Gillson.

American Dipper. Klamath County, Oregon. February 17, 2012 by Greg Gillson.

Bullock's Oriole. Malheur NWR, Oregon. May 24, 2009 by Greg Gillson.