Sparrow ID Needed

[Mike Milicia]

Image was captured in early October on Monhegan Island in Maine.

Thanks for your help!

[James Prudente]

My thought is a young Chipping Sparrow.

Jim

[Paul Lagasi]

I'm probably wrong on these little brown jobs, bill dark on top, striping on back, grey collar, clear breast..
flash was probably used, could possibly lighten some of the darks on the face?

I think its either an Adult Winter Chipping or Winter Tree Sparrow leaning more towards Tree
LOLOL..drat I need help with this ID
Mike this is a lovely photo...thanks

[John Chardine]

Here's a young of the year Chipping Sparrow. Image was made on Deer Island, New Brunswick on 6 August 2008. At the time I didn't know the ID of the bird and so I confirmed with a sparrow expert, friend and BPN member Dan Busby. This young chippy does not have the malar stripe of the bird in question (BIQ), and the BIQ lacks the fine streaking on the breast and the dark line through the eye of this bird. I give it more study when I have some time (just home from 6 weeks away) but I think we can eliminate imm. Chipping Sparrow.

[Jim Buescher]

I'm guessing Chipping Sparrow also. Not a juvenile but possibly a first winter - pinkish beak, no streaks on breast, buffier overall than adult, brownish wash to flanks.

[Graham Smith.]

I'm going to go against the grain and say clay-coloured. I imagine it would be a fairly late occurrence in Maine though. I'm thinking CCSP mostly because of the pale lores on this bird. For a chipping, the eyeline would extend in front of the eye (giving darkened lores), which it does not appear to do here.

[John Chardine]

I'm going to go against the grain and say clay-coloured. I imagine it would be a fairly late occurrence in Maine though. I'm thinking CCSP mostly because of the pale lores on this bird. For a chipping, the eyeline would extend in front of the eye (giving darkened lores), which it does not appear to do here.

As in the image I posted Graham.

[Graham Smith.]

Exactly John,
Just taking it a bit further and making the comparison to the clay-coloured.

[Mike Milicia]

My Sparrow ID skills are lacking to say the best and I had no idea that there would be some ambiguity here or I could have provided some additional information.

This was captured during my trip to Monhegan last fall with Artie. Artie, of course, had no problem with the ID's and tried his best to pass on some ID tips. I learned a lot and made some notes but I still could not positively ID this one. But I do believe that I remember the list of all of the Sparrows that we photographed that week and those would be :
Chipping Sparrow, Clay-colored Sparrow, Swamp Sparrow, White-crowned Sparrow, Lincoln's Sparrow, Song Sparrow, and Savannah Sparrow. So Clay-colored is definitely a possibility.

Can anyone second Clay-colored?

[Chris Sloan]

I was going to post this before I left work. It's definitely a Clay-colored Sparrow. The pale lores, moderately strong pale median crown stripe, and distinctive light buffy malar all add up to Clay-colored.

[Axel Hildebrandt]

Very interesting discussion, I have never seen a clay-colored sparrow, good to see the differences compared with chipping sparrow.

[Mike Milicia]

Thanks to all for help with the ID and some great info along the way.

[Dave Brown]

Hey Guys,

This is absolutely a Clay-colored Sparrow. The pale lores and near absent eyeline rule out Chipping Sparrow. Note the extend of the dark lores and eyeline in John's photo.

Dave Brown