ID help needed, Birdsky! There was a mixed flock of House, American Tree, and White-throated Sparrows this morning at the McCormick Bird Sanctuary (Chicago). Plus this one darker bird? Is this some kind of House Sparrow dark morph? Any ideas? #birds - ThreadSky

ajcousins.bsky.social • 28 days ago

ID help needed, Birdsky! There was a mixed flock of House, American Tree, and White-throated Sparrows this morning at the McCormick Bird Sanctuary (Chicago). Plus this one darker bird? Is this some kind of House Sparrow dark morph? Any ideas? #birds

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juleskelleybooks.bsky.social•27 days ago

Might be a female brown headed cowbird? They often hang around with sparrows and have that full body dark coloration.

ajcousins.bsky.social•27 days ago

Ooh, a new theory! Interesting thought! I'd've guessed that those were even bigger than this was, but I haven't seen one yet, so I don't have a good sense of scale. I shall investigate further...

alexdesignsit.bsky.social•27 days ago

My partner, a bird person, says they are Eurasian sparrows, both males and females

alexdesignsit.bsky.social•27 days ago

He says if the darker bird isn’t an Eurasian sparrow his best guess is a junco, since these types of birds all fleet up together in the winter.

ajcousins.bsky.social•27 days ago

Most of the birds in the pics are def House Sparrows! Very similar to Eurasian Tree Sparrows, yes. I was looking for the *one* Eurasian Tree Sparrow that's been seen this past week, but didn't spot its distinct black cheek patch surrounded by white. Our juncos are mostly Dark-eyed, grey & white!

ajcousins.bsky.social•27 days ago

For your Monday morning viewing pleasure: some of my fave juncos sightings this past year! 😊 Any excuse to share a Junco! 😂

alexdesignsit.bsky.social•27 days ago

I love how round these borbs are 😍

alexdesignsit.bsky.social•27 days ago

Maybe the dark one is actually just goth 😂

ajcousins.bsky.social•27 days ago

The roundest! I adore them. :)

authorkarinahalle.bsky.social•28 days ago

Perhaps a young House Sparrow? The way the beak is open makes me think it was chirping at its parents for food maybe.

ajcousins.bsky.social•28 days ago

Yeah, I was wondering if it was immature! It was just bigger than the others too, so I wasn't sure. But a good guess, I think!

authorkarinahalle.bsky.social•28 days ago

Super cute! I love sparrows.

ajcousins.bsky.social•28 days ago

Me too! I'm working on my sparrow ID skills, but I've got a lot more to learn. 😂

authorkarinahalle.bsky.social•28 days ago

You might already have this but if you don’t, the Merlin Bird ID app is a godsend!!

ajcousins.bsky.social•28 days ago

I do! But I mostly just use it for IDing sounds. I think you can do it with photos too, right? I should figure that out. 😂

ajcousins.bsky.social•27 days ago

A couple of theories have been proposed, @tinylongwing.bsky.social, but you've got the expert eye. Any suggestions, if you're around? 😉

tinylongwing.bsky.social•27 days ago

These are all House Sparrows. The darker bird is melanistic, likely due to a genetic quirk. It's not considered a "morph" in that there's no like, normal population-level version of this occurring, just random individuals.

tinylongwing.bsky.social•27 days ago

If you flip through macaulay's aberrant HOSP you'll see a few like it here and there, though leucistic birds are definitely more common https://search.macaulaylibrary.org/catalog?taxonCode=houspa&tag=aberrant_plumage

ajcousins.bsky.social•27 days ago

Melanistic! Fabulous. I knew you would know! The feather patterns seemed the same, so I was guessing there had to be something, but my vocabulary didn't include the right words. 😂 I didn't know what determined "morph" either, but that makes sense. Thank you for sharing your deep well of knowledge!

tinylongwing.bsky.social•27 days ago

Happy to help! And it's always super fun to see photos of weird birds like this haha, they're like little special easter eggs in the world.

ajcousins.bsky.social•27 days ago

Right? The variety in the leucistic ones is spectacular too. Just fascinating!

ajcousins.bsky.social•27 days ago

And yes, I spotted some in that photo collection that look exactly like this one. Cool! TY!

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