The Howland Picture Pages: American Tree Sparrow

Page by Royce
Last update: $Date: 2004/03/02 22:28:17 $ (UTC)

The American Tree Sparrow (Spizella arborea) is a new world sparrow that summers way up north, and winters to the south of us slightly on our side of the border within Alberta, but mainly in the U.S. So normally the only times we see them in Calgary are during spring and fall migrations. This bird likes bushy areas, and we most often see it foraging on the ground.

This sparrow can be sometimes confused with the Chipping Sparrow or White-crowned Sparrow, but closer inspection (or a handy photograph for leisurely review) will highlight a few distinctive features of the American Tree Sparrow. These include: rufous eye stripe, grey supercilium (eyebrow), and bold white wing bar. If you can see it, the under part of the bill is yellow while the upper part is dark.

Resources where you can find out more:

• American Tree Sparrow profile at weaselhead.org
• American Tree Sparrow profile at CLO including sound sample
• American Tree Sparrow profile at the USGS Patuxent Bird Identification InfoCenter

Here is an American Tree Sparrow, one of a small flock we observed December 20, 2003. We were taking a gander at a spot in Chatfield State Park, southwest of Denver, scoping out a location that should be excellent for Herons later in the new year. On this particular day there weren't too many birds about but we did enjoy the busy group of Sparrows as they flitted around one of the park look-out points. EXIF 2.2 photo info:   320 x 356 true color Exposure time: 1/153.60 F-stop: 5.9 ISO speed: 100 Focal length: 71.2000 Exposure mode: Auto White balance: Auto Exposure bias: 0.0000 Metering mode: Center Weighted Exposure program: Aperture priority Gain control: None Contrast: Normal Saturation: High Sharpness: Hard Camera make: NIKON Camera model: E5700

This American Tree Sparrow was observed near Ardrossan, Alberta probably during a stop-over on its fall southward migration. The date was October 12, 2002. The Sparrow was mixed in with a flock of Dark-eyed Juncos. The Juncos, sadly, were giving it a hard time, chasing it off any time it came near a promising area that they were working over for Junco chow. The Sparrow was game, however, and hung in there for quite some time. The image is somewhat faded because I was trying to shoot through a kitchen window, which is not something one normally would do if good image quality was a goal. EXIF 2.2 photo info:   320 x 221 true color Exposure time: 1/89.30 F-stop: 4.2 ISO speed: 400 Focal length: 71.2000 (plus 1.5X teleconverter) Exposure mode: Auto White balance: Auto Exposure bias: 0.0000 Metering mode: Center Weighted Exposure program: Normal Gain control: Low gain up Contrast: Normal Saturation: Normal Sharpness: Normal Camera make: NIKON Camera model: E5700

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