Happy New Year! I was looking out my back window yesterday and saw a lbj (little brown job) sparrow with a bright white tail. After grabbing my binoculars from my car - I noticed white eye-rings on this sparrow- a winter Field Sparrow? I didn't realize Field Sparrows sometimes winter in Southwestern Ontario --- but they do. A quick glance at historic Ojibway Park CBC [link] data has 0-2 birds on most years. This ebird map [link] shows the occurrence of field sparrows in North America in Jan of 2017. Field Sparrows have been seen further north in Ontario over the last week at Rondeau and Long Point. The map below shows the range map for this species from allaboutbirds.org.
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| Img Source: https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Field_Sparrow/id |
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| A white tailed Field Sparrow (sorry about the bad white balance here). It looks like primaries 6 & 7 are white as well as the central tail feathers are pure white. |
Five species of sparrows in my back yard yesterday included:
House Sparrows -20
Song Sparrows -2
Trees Sparrows- 5
Dark eyed Juncos-15
Field Sparrow-1
This Sparrow is pretty unique and distinctive. It would be cool to see if it is seen elsewhere in the province or neighboring states this year. If you see it... let me know!
Good Birding!
Dwayne
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