Another Brown Job

[Paul Lagasi]

Taken near Madera Canyon in late February....only thing that throws me is the striped head..maybe a rufous-winged....

[Richard Stern]

Hi Paul,

The only real contenders would be Rufous-crowned, Rufous-winged and Am.Tree - and I agree, of those, the field marks add up best to Rufous-winged.

Richard

[Paul Lagasi]

Thanks Richard...

[Declan Troy]

Well, I'm not convinced. I'm leaning on the Rufous-crowned Sparrow side of the fence. The area around the malar stripe looks too contrasty for rufous-winged. Now if you heard them singing they sound more different than they appear.

[Paul Lagasi]

Delcan...I ruled out Rufous-Crowned right away, because of the white eye ring and heavy black whiskers it sports, no stripe through crown.

The Rufous-winged is supposed to be a plumper bodied bird, and has a strip through the rufous crown...which the above one is...Below I have included a (poor) image of what I think is a Rufous-Crowned, taken in Texas a few years ago.....

Thanks for your help

[Declan Troy]

Roger all that. Agree on the ID of the second bird. I'd quibble on some of the criteria you list to discriminate between the two but you are the guy looking at the bird in question.

[James Prudente]

Paul, nice image of your Madera Canyon Rufous-winged Sparrow. Dark upper bill, bright yellow lower bill, striped crown, dark lateral throat stripe, clear grayish breast all point to the RWSP and he looks just like the representatives in my back yard here in Vail, AZ.

Jim