10 October 2023
Migrating chipping sparrows (Spizella passerina) have simply begun to reach in Pittsburgh and so they look completely different than they did final spring. The adults are fading and the juveniles, which by no means did match the adults, now resemble different species. We’ve got a class for Complicated Fall Warblers. There should be one for Complicated Fall Sparrows.
From mid-March to mid-April chipping sparrows molt quickly into breeding plumage with a rusty cap, a pointy white swatch above the black eyeline and rusty-orange tones on the wings.
In mid-August the adults being two and a half months of molting into duller non-breeding plumage, wanting ragged in September and ending up with the brownish cap and muted facial markings of non-breeding plumage.
In the meantime the juveniles lose the noticed breast they fledged with and acquire sharper facial markings. Typically they seem like clay-colored sparrows that are certainly uncommon in Pittsburgh.
Let’s examine the younger chipping sparrow at Frick Park to an October clay-colored sparrow: chipping on the left, clay-colored on the precise beneath. These small pictures are similar to the lengthy distance view within the subject.
They give the impression of being virtually the identical. What’s the distinction?
- The chipping sparrow has a powerful black eyeline that extends all the way in which to its beak and its face patch has muted edges.
- The clay-colored sparrow has no black between its eye and beak but it surely does have a darkish “moustache” outlining the entrance fringe of its face patch.
- In the event you can see the highest of the pinnacle, the younger chipping sparrow might have skinny white stripes however the clay-colored has a distinctly huge white crown-stripe.
And simply to shake issues up, there was a leucistic grownup chipping sparrow at Frick final Saturday who regarded as if he had been dunked face-first in white paint. His brow, cheeks and throat have been so white that it the digicam had a tough time choosing up the small print.
Theorectically leucism (lack of pigment) is in his genes so his face will all the time appears like this it doesn’t matter what plumage he’s in. His the one chipping sparrow I can establish as a person.
p.s. Extra confusion: When American tree sparrows arrive later this fall they’ll resemble chipping sparrows in breeding plumage, besides that the chipping sparrows might be in non-breeding plumage. Click here and scroll down to see American tree sparrows in comparison with chipping sparrows at All About Birds.
(pictures from Charity Kheshgi, Lauri Shaffer, Steve Gosser and Wikimedia Commons)
