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<a href=".. All: Ulli's sparrow is in fact a beautiful example of one of the inland subspecies of Nelson's Sparrow, presumably the "Prairie" (to n ON) form nelsoni rather than the James Bay alterus. There are several critical features that eliminate Saltmarsh Sparrow. 1. the back is too strongly marked with black and white - SMSP is more uniformly clay-colored and dark brown. 2. The bill, tho' quite long, is not up to the more robust one SMSP. 3, In STSP there is strong contrast between the umber face and whitish throat to flanks, the latter heavily black-striped. In prairie Neslon's, as in Ulli's bird, the flanks are similarly black-streaked, but with buff-umber ground color. 4. A useful distinction in such excellent photos is in the tertials. In Ulli's image, the tertials are, typically for Nelson's, blackish with pale margins. In SMSP these are clay-colored with blackish stripe inside the pale inner margins. This feature is not shown in field guides, but is evident in web images. The bill in SMSP is normally more robust than on Ulli's bird, although there is overlap in lenght. This bird is just as interesting as possible SMSP, if one gets beyond mere "ticking" for the life list. Its presence may reflect the strong westerly airflow of late. There may be more such birds out there! Sparrows always deserve a closer look. Cheers, Ian Ian McLaren Quoting uhoeger@dal.ca: > Hello, > > A few days ago a sparrow was playing hide and seek with me at Hartlen > Point. It wouldn't show itself out in the open and stay low and in > the cover of > the reeds (at the waterhole behind the beach facing the harbour. > I managed to get a few photos. One that shows the bird well can be found > here: > > http://myweb.dal.ca/uhoeger/webimages/sparrow.jpg > > I am pretty sure its one of the Sharp-tails (Saltmarsh is my call), but would > appreciate feedback. > > Thanks > > Ulli > >
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