Hey! What About Me?

It’s not that I wouldn’t love to film a Field Sparrow any time I had the chance. They are lovely birds. The reality is that, as a species that loves to hang out in in thick hedgerows alongside open fields, they are pretty elusive, at least to photography. I hear their very distinctive call all the time. Someone once told me it sounds like a bouncing ping pong ball, and from that point forward I could easily recognize it.

Still, it seems that the Field Sparrow in the photo below might feel that I spend too much time filming the far easier subject of Bluebirds at their nest boxes. And, for that reason he performed a near perfect Photo-Bomb! Good on him!

Let’s put this post into perspective as it relates to my commitment to film the little guys; the birds that many people don’t even know exist. I think if I were to ask anyone on the street how many types of sparrows there are, they would probably answer like I once would have. “Hmmm, maybe five?”

Per AllAboutBirds.org, there are twenty-seven species of Sparrows that could, possibly spend a day or more at my property in south-central Illinois. That is a subset of the 53 Sparrow species that AllAboutBirds lists as residents or migrants in the United States.

Five of the twenty-seven possible species are year-round (YR) residents in my zone: Eastern Towhee, Field Sparrow, Horned Lark, House Sparrow (not native), and the Song Sparrow. Except for the Horned Lark, I have a record (photo or audio recording) the remaining YR four!

Eight of the possible Sparrow species spend their non-breeding (NB) time in my zone. I’ve been lucky to have filmed six of those on more than one occasion: American Tree Sparrow, Dark-eyed Junco, Fox Sparrow, Swamp Sparrow, White-crowned Sparrow and the White-throated Sparrow. The two less species I’ve failed to see here are the Snow Bunting and the Lapland Longspur.

Five Sparrow species spend their time here only during the breeding season (B): Chipping Sparrow,Grasshopper Sparrow, Henslow Sparrow, Lark Sparrow and Vesper Sparrow. With a recent verified recording of the Lark Sparrow, I have evidenced all of these species sans the Henslow Sparrow here at our property.

The least likely group of Sparrows to catch a glimpse of at our location are those that migrate (M) through the area during the Spring and Fall. The list of eight includes: LeConte’s Sparrow , Nelson’s Sparrow, Smith’s Longspur and the Clay-colored Sparrow which I have not observed, as well as the Lincoln, Savannah and Harris’s Sparrows along with the American Pipit that I’ve been quite fortunate to have filmed.

Of the twenty-seven Sparrow species that I could possibly identify here, I have evidenced nineteen of them through either photo or verified audio records. For an amateur birder and photographer who doesn’t leave our 50 acre parcel to search for birds, I am happy with that number. Check out the page Birds In Our Backyard page.

So, what I have to say to that handsome Field Sparrow that felt the need to photo-bomb the Bluebird picture is, “Dude, make yourself a bit more obvious and I’d be happy to capture your essence in a photo. But, until them, feel free to flit into my frame any time!”