These are some of the easier sparrows to identify because of the bold face pattern.  It’s not as apparent in the picture above but in addition to the white stripes on their face they also have a yellow spot.

Those pictures were taken in Arizona.  We have Lark Sparrows in Utah too, but they weren’t as cooperative for the pictures, although this one is more relaxed than the Arizona ones as evidenced by his fluffy head.

One interesting fact about Lark Sparrows is that they are too lazy to create their own nests and they may share the nest with other bird species.

That’s not even the largest number of birds that were on it!  They all scattered when I opened the door to take a picture.

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But a few weeks ago I made it to the Red Butte Gardens, which is becoming quite busy with activity!  There were tons of secretive quails bursting out of bushes and flying away.  This is the best picture I got of a female California Quail.

But even better, I saw a new life bird!  The Lincoln’s Sparrow.

I feel very lucky because according to my field guides, they don’t usually appear in this part of Utah.  The trick with identifying the Lincoln’s Sparrow is the white patch that starts at the base of his beak and moves below his eye and the grey eyebrow.  Compare the Lincoln’s Sparrow above to the Song Sparrow:

They’re pretty close, right?  Until I read about the Song Sparrows having a whiter eyebrow I thought the birds in both these pictures were the Lincoln’s Sparrow because I couldn’t see the Song Sparrow’s main distinguishing mark, which is a brown spot on the center of his chest:

From this angle he looks very different.  Here’s a comparison with the Lincoln’s Sparrow:

The Lincoln’s Sparrow has a greater contrast in his mutton chops.  I also noticed that the tips of the Song Sparrow’s wings form an upside down “L” of dark brown feathers.  The Lincoln’s Sparrow has dark brown tips in rows.  Lastly, the Lincoln’s Sparrow can raise the feathers on his head sort of like a crest.  Soon I will be a sparrow expert!

In the picture above the bird on the left is a juvenile.  The juveniles don’t have white stripes.  Here’s a better picture.

If he hadn’t been hanging with the grownups I would have been totally confused about what type of sparrow he is.  I mean, it’s already hard distinguishing between males and females.  Now I have to worry about juveniles?  The indignity.  But the adults are very easy to identify:

Here’s a side view.

In California we had White-crowned Sparrows year round.  The ones on the West Coast are supposed to have duller white stripes.  I think that’s pretty accurate.  The West Coaster is below.

Just ignore the shell casing next to the birds.  Farmington Bay has a lot of hunters in the winter.  Ahem.  The most distinctive part of the American Tree Sparrow is a black spot on the center of the bird.  Next, the lower part of the beak is yellow.

They have a lot of coloring on their back.  On a random note, one of the hunters that frequents Farmington Bay had a very interesting cartoon on the side of his truck.

I’m a bit weirded out by a hunter having a picture of a naked lady dressed as a bunny.  Does he want to shoot her?  Is he attracted to bunnies?  These are my questions.  Here’s a close-up.

Unfortunately, everyone else knows how pretty it is.  Salt Lake City has always been so great compared to Silicon Valley because it’s not crowded.  You never have to wait for a table at a restaurant here.  Even going to Jazz games isn’t that big a deal.  But the Utah people are into outdoor activities.  So if you need to find a Utah resident, now I know where to look.  People were everywhere!!!

And you know what’s bad for birding?  It’s kids in strollers, teenagers on cellphones and giant families walking on boardwalks.  If I had more time I would have taken a hike to Twin Lakes, which would have had fewer people given that you can’t take a stroller up a mountain.  But I did see a new bird: the Pine Siskin.

I am very proud because I identified them based on their sound!  I actually remembered something from the Stokes cds.  You see, the front of a Pine Siskin is striped, just like tons of other small birds.  Like this Song Sparrow:

The best way to identify Pine Siskins is from the side because the tips of their wings and tailfeathers are yellow.

Other than Pine Siskins there were only chickadees and mallards, and this was a lovely shot of a female Mallard Duck.

The drive up was also really nice because the leaves have started to change.  It’s been four years since I lived in a place with a real fall.  I’m so excited!

Oh hello there, can I help you?

I took picture after picture, hoping that I could get a good shot.  And then, as if sensing my frustration, the Brewer’s Sparrow flew down on a branch mere feet from me.  There’s even a ladybug in this picture!!!

This species doesn’t have any easy markers for identification.  The guidebook mentions a white eye ring, but really it’s the absence of markings that make him identifiable.

That, and the fact that they’re most commonly found in sagebrush.  Which is where I found him.

The Song Sparrow, on the other hand, is easily identifiable by the brown spot on his breast.

The Brewer’s Sparrow may not be easily identifiable, but I really like his pink beak and bedroom eyes.

But sparrows are still adorable, especially the females.

The BirdCam has a bit of a lag between when it detects motion and when it takes pictures so I have a lot of pictures of nothing.  The most entertaining bit so far is how FAST the seed dwindles.

When you cycle quickly through the pictures, it’s like a jagged movie where the seed vanishes.  The sparrows are hungry!

The gardens, however, are full of birds and bunnies!  Very hungry looking bunnies.

I got some great shots of a Black-Headed Grosbeak.  There are many types of grosbeaks.  Birdchick has a beautiful picture of a Rose-Breasted Grosbeak.  Utah is supposed to have them but so far I’ve only seen Black-Headed Grosbeaks.

The first time I ever saw a grosbeak was at my feeders.  He was terribly shy and so I could only get pictures through the glass.  Grosbeaks prefer forests, so they were a lot more comfortable with me in their space.  His breast is puffy in this picture because he was singing.

Black-Headed Grosbeaks are sometimes confused with Spotted Towhees.  In performing an identification, make sure you look at the eyes.  Spotted Towhees have red eyes.

Black-Headed Grosbeaks have a lovely song.  I’m embarrassed to write that I thought I was listening to a House Finch singing until a saw the bird.  I’ve been listening to the Stokes bird identification tracks, but they’re not sinking in yet.  I can identify almost any track from the 1990′s based on four bars of music, but not these bird tracks.  All that talent wasted on crappy alternative music.

Grosbeak refers to the large beak of a group of seed-eating passerines, i.e. songbirds.  You can really see in the above picture that their beaks look disproportionately large compared to other songbirds.  See, for example, a House Sparrow.

Now compare the female Black-Headed Grosbeak to the House Sparrow.  If it weren’t for that beak, you could easily confuse the grosbeak for a sparrow, right?

I mean, checkout her crown.

It’s pretty similar to a white-crowned sparrow.

So watch the beak!

Imagine, your gutters have so much stuff in them, that stagnant water sits there.  And the birds don’t mind because there isn’t much water in Salt Lake City so bathing in filthy water is better than no bath.

Jon and I spent several minutes taking pictures and laughing at this house.

The birds looked so happy, diving in the gutters

and coming up dripping with water.

so make sure to clean your gutters because the birds are watching you