North American sparrows are a problematic family of birds even for those of us who live here and see some species fairly regularly. To be candid, I was somewhat dreading the workshop because I knew it was going to be a lot of hard work sorting out a bunch of Little Brown Jobs. Boy, was I surprised!
We started off with a “lab” at the University of Arizona where we were graciously allowed to view a tray of skins of various sparrows most likely to be seen in SE Arizona in winter, as well as eggs and nests, jealously and lovingly protected by Dr. Tom Huels of UofA.
Rick then introduced us to a new way to look at sparrow species, a system covered in a chapter of Kenn Kaufman’s book, Advanced Birding. It’s called “The Generic Approach” and reduces the 40-something species of NA sparrows into 8 groups based on size, shape, and tail length/shape. By asking yourself a few simple questions when looking at a sparrow, all but 3-5 species can be eliminated thus making it far quicker and easier to nail an ID. It’s going to take me a lot longer to unlearn old habits than it is to learn this new approach to field identification of these LBJs, but I can tell you already it’s a lot easier to remember a few details of a sparrow “type” before looking at scapulars and supercilia than struggling with all the field marks of 40-odd individual species.
Another valuable tip I picked up was that sparrows are one family of birds where “species is defined by habitat.” I haven’t yet had the opportunity to field test this for myself but can’t wait to see how well it works.
The second day of the workshop was the “practical” where we headed an hour south of Tucson to Elephant Head at the base of the west slope of the Santa Rita Mountains (near Madera Canyon). Our destination was on private property where a virtual desert oasis is being created by the owner, with native plants and a shallow pond, subterranean hides for photographers so the camera is at ground level, and feeders and bird and bat boxes scattered throughout the property. Don’t know when he’ll be opening it up to the general public, but I’ll let you know when he does.
After spending a too-quick couple hours there, we headed back north and west of Tucson to Avra Valley and a wastewater treatment facility whose ponds, as we all know, are one of the best bird attractants especially in a desert environment. The weather was starting to deteriorate into steady wind and increasing cloud cover, but between the two places we managed to see nearly 60 species of birds in under four hours’ time, almost a quarter of which were sparrows. (I may have forgotten a few as I didn’t keep notes as we went. Sorry, in order seen, not taxonomic.)
Lark Bunting (400!)
Brewer’s Sparrow
Vesper "
Lincoln’s "
White-crowned " (gambelii and oriantha races)
Chipping "
Rufous-winged " (lifer!)
Black-throated "
Savannah "
Lark "
Song "
Abert’s Towhee
Green-tailed Towhee
Greater Roadrunner
Northern Cardinal
Curve-billed Thrasher
House Finch
Phainopepla
Pyrrhuloxia
Mourning Dove
Black-chinned Hummingbird
Rufous Hummingbird
White-winged Dove
Vermillion Flycatcher
Warbling Vireo
Orange-crowned Warbler
Northern Harrier
Northern Shoveler
Bufflehead
Green-winged Teal
Mallard
Lesser Scaup
American Coot
Black-necked Stilt
Killdeer
Least Sandpiper
Wilson’s Snipe
Long-billed Dowitcher
Northern Rough-winged Swallow
Cliff "
Violet-green "
Barn "
Tree "
Gila Woodpecker
Ladder-backed Woodpecker
Say’s Phoebe
Western Meadowlark
Eastern Meadowlark
Black Phoebe
Northern Mockingbird
Loggerhead Shrike
Horned Lark
Red-tailed Hawk
American Kestrel
Verdin
Cactus Wren
Lesser Goldfinch
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