Sparrows

I am revving up for my Little Brown Birds class next month, so I spent some time with the sparrow flocks on Sauvie Island (Birding Oregon p.57). A walk down Rentenaar Road revealed five species, three of which sat still long enough to be photographed.

White-crowned Sparrows stand out with their bold head pattern.

Immature White-crowned Sparrows have the same pattern as the adults, but in brown and buff instead of black and white.

Two Golden-crowned Sparrows, immature on the left, adult on the right

This Song Sparrow was feeding right at my feet, but insisted on staying in my shadow, thus messing up the lighting in the photo.

This Peregrine Falcon wasn’t much of a threat to the sparrows, but he did make the shorebirds and waterfowl nervous.