northeast-flora-and-fauna

Here's a White-throated Sparrow I met last April. When I saw this picture this morning, my 1st thought was that April might not be a good time to find these birds in New Jersey: Although there are a lot of these birds that spend the winter in New Jersey, but they (mostly) migrate further north to breed. Some of our White-throated Sparrows had probably already migrated north, and even if all of them hadn't done so, they ought to be less frequently spotted by now. So I was a little surprised to see that sightings of these sparrows actually peaks in April. ( This link  demonstrates the idea.) What's going on? I think I know: Some (maybe even most) of the White-throated Sparrows that wintered here probably have migrated north by this time. But even more White-throated Sparrows who spent the winter further south are probably migrating through New Jersey this time of the year, more than making up for the losses of our winter residents. Migrating birds probably don't know all...

After talking about White-throated Sparrows yesterday, today I'm going to talk about a wildly different animal, the White-crowned Sparrow . 😉  Okay, they're not really all that different. At least in my area they can look fairly similar to one another - no doubt partly due to them being in the same genus - with a white patch above/behind the eyes and a dark stripe going through the eyes. Some White-crowned Sparrows have a whitish area on their throats, though it's not as distinct as with the White-throated Sparrow. To our eyes the non-head parts of their bodies look similar, and the White-crowned Sparrow is only slightly larger. If you get a look at the top of the head, you'll see a white stripe there on the White-crowned Sparrow, but this can be difficult to see on a profile view. Geographically the White-crowned Sparrow does a better job spanning the continent, but in my area White-throated Sparrows are spotted quite a bit more. Both winter here and south of here, ...

For today's Throwback Thursday, let's talk about the  White-throated Sparrow . These sparrows breed as nearby as New York but spend winters in New Jersey on south.  Although Dark-eyed Juncos have the "snowbird" nickname, White-throated Sparrows are also commonly seen winter visitors in my area. The Cornell Lab of Ornithology says they'll sometimes breed successfully with their Dark-eyed Junco coworkers despite not being closely related. (These kinds of remarks make me wonder how well we really know how closely related our sparrows are.) The love lives of White-throated Sparrows have an interesting complication. They come in 2 morphs, 1 with a white stripe on their heads and 1 with a tan stripe there. These morphs are independent of sex; both males and females can be either the white-stripe morph or the tan-stripe morph. (All adults should have white throats.) Here's where it gets complicated. Males of both morphs are attracted to white-stripe morph females, a...

Here on the edge of a field there is (SURPRISE!) a Field Sparrow . (I've talked about these birds before .) This picture was taken in the middle of summer when most Field Sparrows (and other birds) are starting/raising families. These sparrows normally build nests on or within 10 feet of the ground. Although males may help furnish building materials, the females do all the nest design/carpentry.  As their name suggests, these birds are all about the fields, and generally avoid areas with substantial human activity. This means that they're not too crazy about places like New Jersey where much of the land is suburban or urban. My understanding is that they're doing better on the plains in the middle of the country. Though they may not be crazy about humans, they're not entirely antisocial. This time of the year they will join flocks of other sparrows; apparently Song Sparrows and White-throated Sparrows (both probably more numerous around here) are among their favorite ...