The sparrows are everywhere here and are often overlooked. Thought I would post this common bird and give everyone a break from my Chickadees. This was taken on a set-up in my backyard. The BG is out of focus fall leaves. All C&Cs are welcome and appreciated.
Who could forget that perch:cool: Just love the crinkled effect. Good detail on the sparrow Jim, sharp where it counts, and you have a good complimentary BG too.
Man, you're getting alot of mileage from that perch! I absolutely love the BG here. Awesome perky pose from this fella. I like the House Sparrows too as far as physical beauty goes...but too bad this Old World introduced species is so aggressive towards are native species.
The bird image is great and I love the shape of the perch, but the reflection off the large pale patch on the left is really grabbing my eye. Maybe its just because the coloration of the subject is so subtle. it may also be due to the fact that my left eye is perfect for reading while my right eye is perfect for distance, so the bright spot hits me in my reading eye.
Daniel, if you haven't read the article in Birding magazine, one nice thing about House Sparrows in cities is that they are a major food source for urban nesting American Kestrels. In fact, New York City has multiple pairs (I think several dozen) and they are all near concentrations of House Sparrows. They're still a problem with Bluebirds and other species of course, but at least there's one silver lining. Plus it gives Kestrels a place to nest away from Cooper's Hawks whose recent population increase seems to be a major issue in Kestrel population decrease.
Excellent shot of the house sparrow and Paul has some great points as to something good that can come from this introduction. Your image shows all of the subtle color changes across a common sparrow's body that I like so much. I've tried to shoot as many sparrows as I can find in Missouri because I just love them. Really cool perch here, by the way. Thanks.