Posted by Jim Hackley on November 4, 2012 at 11:02 PM
I am having difficulty getting a good ID on these birds from a hike in Madera Canyon, SE AZ.
I believe bird #1 either to be a Chipping Sparrow or possibly a Song Sparrow.
Bird #2 looks like some type of Vireo
Any help on identifying these would be appreciated.
Posted by Jim Hackley on November 4, 2012 at 11:03 PM
Another look of bird #1
Posted by Jim Hackley on November 4, 2012 at 11:04 PM
Bird #2
Posted by Jim Hackley on November 4, 2012 at 11:04 PM
Another look at bird #2
Posted by Jim DeWitt on November 5, 2012 at 2:03 AM
The first bird seems more likely to be a Clay-colored than a Chipping; in a Chipping, I'd expect the black eye stripe to extend all the way to the bill. Or possibly a Brewer's, although the medial head stripe argues against that.
The second bird is an Empidonax flycatcher, a notoriously difficult family (genus, actually) of flycatchers. My guess is a Hammond's, but whenever you are talking about Empids, I'm basically guessing. To the extent I can tell them apart, it's prom field behavior.
Richard Ditch may be more help.
Posted by Brian Gatlin on November 5, 2012 at 7:58 AM
Jim, the first bird is a pretty classic winter Chipping Sparrow. In winter plumage the dark lores (the continuation of the eye stripe in front of the eye) is much less prominent. The gray rump means that it is not a Clay-colored (they have a brown rump).
as Jim says, the second bird is an empid (vireos have much thicker bills). More angles would help if you have them, but among the regularly occuring AZ species, I think that it's safe to call this either a Dusky or a Hammond's. The long wingtips that show in the second photo argue strongly for Hammond's, and I think that the bill shape/size is ok for that species.
Posted by Jim Hackley on November 5, 2012 at 12:43 PM
Thanks Jim and Brian.
Posted by Richard Ditch on November 5, 2012 at 6:25 PM
Richard Ditch may be more help.
Or not.
Brian has covered this already. Chipping Sparrow no doubt - the rump is a great field mark to capture. The other candidate is Brewer's Sparrow, and there's a good treatment of separating the three in Kenn Kaufman's Advanced Birding guide. In AZ you'll see lots of Brewer's Sparrows around Tucson in winter, and good numbers of Chipping Sparrows at times as well. Clay-colored should always be considered but they are hotline level rarities when discovered here (I think I've only seen three in AZ now in 18 years).
The "or not" part is with the empid flycatcher. These very similar birds cause me a lot of trouble and I let most of them go without getting to the specific species level. I defer to Brian on this one.
Posted by Jim Hackley on November 7, 2012 at 9:56 PM
Discussion
8 repliesI believe bird #1 either to be a Chipping Sparrow or possibly a Song Sparrow.
Bird #2 looks like some type of Vireo
Any help on identifying these would be appreciated.
The second bird is an Empidonax flycatcher, a notoriously difficult family (genus, actually) of flycatchers. My guess is a Hammond's, but whenever you are talking about Empids, I'm basically guessing. To the extent I can tell them apart, it's prom field behavior.
Richard Ditch may be more help.
as Jim says, the second bird is an empid (vireos have much thicker bills). More angles would help if you have them, but among the regularly occuring AZ species, I think that it's safe to call this either a Dusky or a Hammond's. The long wingtips that show in the second photo argue strongly for Hammond's, and I think that the bill shape/size is ok for that species.
Or not.
Brian has covered this already. Chipping Sparrow no doubt - the rump is a great field mark to capture. The other candidate is Brewer's Sparrow, and there's a good treatment of separating the three in Kenn Kaufman's Advanced Birding guide. In AZ you'll see lots of Brewer's Sparrows around Tucson in winter, and good numbers of Chipping Sparrows at times as well. Clay-colored should always be considered but they are hotline level rarities when discovered here (I think I've only seen three in AZ now in 18 years).
The "or not" part is with the empid flycatcher. These very similar birds cause me a lot of trouble and I let most of them go without getting to the specific species level. I defer to Brian on this one.