northeast-flora-and-fauna

I photographed these 2 commonly-seen sparrows about 13 minutes apart, but their lineages are "worlds" apart. The 1st is a House Sparrow , more commonly seen near human dwellings. They are Old World sparrows , and perhaps because they evolved longer around humans, they're fairly tolerant of humans.  And the 2nd is (another) Song Sparrow , which is a New World sparrow that seems willing to sing for us but generally won't nest especially close to us. Although we have a lot of Old World sparrows here in the US, almost all of them are House Sparrows, and here in NJ you're unlikely to find any other Old World sparrows. As you might suspect, all the Old World sparrows and all the New World sparrows are more closely related to the other sparrows of their "world" than they are to sparrows of the other "world".  And while Song Sparrows are considered skilled and prolific singers, the House Sparrow vocalization mostly sounds like they're calling you ...

A tiny branch to you and me is a very functional platform for a Song Sparrow . In my area the Song Sparrow is the prototypical sparrow: Learn what they look like and you'll recognize (with the possible exception of the Dark-eyed Junco [1]) the most abundant species of one of our most abundant bird families: New World Sparrows . Use the differences between Song Sparrows and other sparrows as a way to learn to ID the other sparrows. (I'm still not great at this myself.) Though Song Sparrows know more than 1 song (up to 20 actually), they don't switch between their songs very often. You'll frequently hear 1 singing basically the same song over and over, but hours later might be singing a different tune. Like jazz musicians though, they'll frequently add some improvisation to their basic songs. May 9, 2023 at Duke Farms Photo 282306455, (c) jpviolette, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC) May 9, 2023 at Duke Farms Photo 282306468, (c) jpviolette, some rights reserved (CC B...

While people have long considered the American Robin a harbinger of spring, there's some justification in considering the Dark-eyed Junco as a harbinger of winter (though perhaps identifying them as such would adversely affect their popularity). This was almost certainly one of the 1st juncos I saw last autumn. (The Cornell Lab of Ornithology implies that juncos are here all year round, though I've never actually seen one in the summer.) This species is a little like the Red-tailed Hawk in that different subspecies across the continent have quite different plumage, probably making early ornithologists think they were different species. In our area, we generally have the "slate-colored junco", the subspecies that's got a whitish belly and is gray (males) or grayish-brown (females) above. Another thing they have in common with Red-tailed Hawks is that red-tails are among our most common raptors, and the Dark-eyed Junco is one of our most common birds overall. The...

While yesterday's Mourning Dove are rare beneficiaries of the bird food I've left out for the Dark-eyed Juncos , much more frequent beneficiaries are the House Sparrows . As one of the most successful invasive bird species in North America (the European Starling is the other one), House Sparrows are less popular with birders, naturalists, and ecologists than almost any bird we see. This actually extends to the law; while harming most birds is illegal (with some regulated exceptions for game birds), these guys aren't protected by federal law. (Local animal cruelty laws could still apply though.) These guys are Old World sparrows , and are thus not particularly closely related to virtually all the other sparrows you see; almost all the other sparrows you see are New World sparrows . (New World sparrows are actually more closely related to Old World Buntings than Old World Sparrows. Such is the confusing world of taxonomy.) March 2021 at Finderne