Vesper sparrow - not looking a lot like its picture in the bird books

A vesper sparrow near Winfield, BC.

When I saw the bird, I didn't recognize it as anything special.  The markings are rather bland; there was nothing that really stood out like a rufous cap or black throat, and it just sat there, completely ignoring me but not doing anything special either.  Essentially, it was a small, dull, plain bird.

When trying to identify a bird I often go through a series of checks.  First, I try to figure out what group it belongs to.  In this case, it was a fair bet that it was a sparrow.  Then I try to identify any special markings that could help in identifying it.  Nothing really, but I did notice a very small chestnut brown shoulder patch.  Was that an eye-ring I saw?  Not sure, it certainly doesn't stand out like they do on some birds.  And I didn't get a good look at the breast, but it looks speckled or something, but less as it descends on the bird.

Then I peruse my books to look for something akin to what I photographed.  With a bird like this, identification is not always easy.  The closest thing I could find was a vesper sparrow, but it did not have a clearly marked eye-ring the way the one had in the book.  The only real giveaway was the chestnut shoulder patch.  I posted my image on a Facebook bird group and was rewarded with an answer to my query.  Yes, it was, in fact, a vesper sparrow.

The term vesper means evening prayer.  The bird gets its name from the "sweet tinkling sound" it makes when singing.  If you want to hear one singing, click here.

Thanks for reading.

Eric Svendsen     www.ericspix.com