Native Sparrows
Birds of the Month - January 2008
Little Brown Jobs
Our native sparrows seem to all look alike!So much so that bird watchers, out of a sense of frustration, often lump them all into one unflattering category – LBJ’s – Little Brown Jobs! If you still don’t know the name of that sparrow after a long look at it through the binoculars, then it must be an LBJ!
Compared to many of our regular feeder visitors, our native sparrows are indeed drab by comparison. But what they lack in pizzazz, they make up for in nuance.
The Song Sparrow is found in every state of the Union. And while at first glance it is unremarkable, a more detailed observation will reveal its Fu Manchu moustache, a dark central “tie tack” mark on its chest and pink legs and feet.
The handsome White-throated Sparrow comes in two slightly different models – one with white stripes on its head, the other with tan. These two distinct color forms are genetic in origin. White-striped birds are more aggressive than tan-striped ones, and each bird almost always mates with a bird whose stripe color is opposite their own.
White-crowned Sparrows visit feeders early and late in the day. With a crown of bold black and white stripes on their head, they look like they are stoking up for a long bicycle ride…complete with helmet.
These are just a few of our native sparrows and with just a little work and observation, you can turn those unknown LBJ’s at your feeders into birds that actually have a name.