... And the Chipping Sparrow

Chipping Sparrow   Photo courtesy Wikipedia

Because in my last posting I talked about American Tree Sparrows, this time I want to show you their look-alike cousins - Chipping Sparrows. And no, I haven't seen any Chipping Sparrows back yet, but the crows are flapping about town and we saw a Red-tailed Hawk swoop over the highway to Humboldt yesterday. The snow is finally starting to melt so maybe there is hope that spring will eventually come!

As you can see, the two species of sparrow share a common rusty orange cap, tweedy brown and black back and light underparts. What is missing on the Chipping Sparrow is the black tie-tack pinned in the centre of the Tree Sparrow's Chest. The "chipping" has a black line through its eye, accented by the white "eyebrow" above, more dramatic eye makeup than that of the "tree" with the rusty eye line.

 Speaking about the bright cap on the Chipping Sparrow reminds me of when my granddaughter Megan, then 10 and also living in Delisle, phoned me  to ask the name of the little brown bird with red on top of its head and a black line through his eye.

Red? Red head? Maybe a Purple finch, I suggested. She sounded uncertain, but since the bird had a nest low down in their neighbor's tree holding four light blue eggs with brownish spots, she wanted to know what it was. I suggested she come take a look through my guide books and she arrived a few minutes later on her bike. I pointed out the Purple Finch.

"That's not purple, Grandma. That's red," she said. "And that's not the red I mean. Like  a robin's breast, but brighter"

Ahh! Robin Red-breast of British poetry was confusing my granddaughter! While English Robin's indeed have a red breast, our American Robins have a rusty orange breast, and yet how often to we say our robin's are also red-breasted. It took Megan just a few moments to find the Chipping Sparrow in the guide book. There is something immensely satisfying about sharing my passion for birds with my grandchildren.

Last summer when I was sitting outside with my coffee I observed  pair of Chipping Sparrows making frequent trips from our yard to a cedar in an oak barrel planter at the neighbor's across the street. After seeing the same performance over several days, I suggested to Evvie that maybe they had a nest in her bush. We investigated and sure enough, their were four pin-feathered babies with mouths agape. The parents kept up their routine of coming to the smorg in our yard and delivering lunch across the street for another week or so and then one day I saw the four young ones lined up side by side on the edge of eaves trough above the cedar and knew they were finally about to go shopping for dinner on their own,