A New Week, A New Bird

Time again for my weekly Twitter icon change. This episode features a bird from outside my parents house a few weeks ago when we had a family picnic. There were a couple of them and it sure seemed like they were a couple. One had some red and the other was more tan or brown.



I walked through the WhatBird wizard for the one without red and it narrowed the list down to three:

• Lark Sparrow (more white underbelly that the ones I saw)
• Cassin's Finch (red crown and forehead, unlike one of the 2 I saw)
• Botteri's Sparrow (belly pattern solid, unlike the streaked patterns I saw)

I went through the WhatBird wizzard and picked a few colors that were close for a primary color. I got more possibles that way, but they were almost all some type of sparrow. These may in fact be some kind of sparrow, but the ones WhatBird was showing me all seemed wrong for one reason or another.

I am unsure how to identify these guys, so I am turning it over to you folks. I have gotten many good suggestions and pointers from many experienced birders and hope I can keep counting on you for help. Comments here are appreaciated (and easy, no logon needed), but if you want to shoot me a note on Twitter, feel free to give me a shout over there.