Seward, Alaska
I rarely see the female
GOLDEN-CROWNED SPARROW, and many references ignore her completely. So I was
pleased to get a few photos of her recently as she quickly gleaned leggy
insects from a willow tree for her babies. The dad is quite dashing with his
dashing golden crown inset into a black cap, but she also wears a sweet little
golden crown. Quite the royal pair.
Another sparrow puzzled me.
It looked like a SONG SPARROW, but it was so much brighter than our dark Kenai
subspecies with a dapper white bib, buffy eyebrows, and almost no gray on the
face. The dark bill looked much longer and more slender than the pictures in the books. Thanks to Joe Staab for verifying the ID as a Song Sparrow. As he
described it, it's "milk chocolate" instead of "dark
chocolate," more like the Midwestern subspecies. I'll be looking more
closely at Song Sparrows now as well!
Carol Griswold
Seward Sporadic Bird Report
Reporter
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