Bird Essentials

Life got me by the tail again yesterday.  Somehow the surprise birthday party my son was throwing for my daughter in law and a full 9 hours at work took precedence over writing about my fine feathered friends.  Go figure.

Wouldn’t it be wonderful if birds could talk?  I sometimes think that some of the research we do, and all we have at our fingertips that tell us about the different species is not quite enough.  And as the species evolve, mature and acclamate themselves to different climates, I am not so sure that all we have in print may be changing as well.  So, we can take it all as factual until we witness something new and different. 

So, if a sparrow could talk, this is what I think he would tell us:   The sparrow family is a large group of relatively small birds that includes towhees, juncos and longspurs.  All of them have short, cone-shaped beaks specialized for cracking open seeds.  They are often seen scratching at the ground in search of seeds.  During the summer they switch to more of an insect diet to provide a higher protein food for thier nestlings.  They tend to be a secretive bunch and prefer hanging out on or near the ground.  While some are solitary, most are seen in flocks.  Sparrows are a challenging groups to identify to the species level because so many of them look like  “little brown birds”.  On close inspecition many have beautiful colors and patterns, and when vocalizing their distinctive songs, clinch identification.   To narrow down the range of possibilities, look for the following features:  head pattern, breast streaked or unstreaked, overall body shape and the habitat where the “sparrow family member” is seen.

Ground platform bird feeders are best for sparrows.  Seed blends with some millet appeal to these ground feeding birds, but they also really like sunflower seeds.

We will take a close look at te American tree sparrow, fox sparrows, song sparrows, swamp sparrows, white-throated sparrows, white-crown sparrows and dark-eyed juncos separately, so you can get to know them a bit better and start to recognize their differences.