7.7 Sage
Sparrow, Skyline OSP, SM
I arrived at the cabled overlook above the parking lot at Skyline OSP about 7:30 this morning. I was fortunate to reach the area ahead of most of the birders and only had to deal with the blowing fog and moisture dripping off of the foliage onto the trail. This SAGE SPARROW was easily observed on the trail just beyond the cables and I spend the better part of 30 minutes trying to photograph the bird. I only saw one individual this morning.
Description:
Let's start with a pro forma description based on the
photos, cropped and sharpened for the Tom Greys of the world
:-). A small brown bird with a head that's conspicuously grayer
than the the body. Overall very ratty plumage; certainly doesn't
resemble anything found in most standard field guides. Head grayer
than back; strong white eyering. Strong pale loral spot; relatively
thin gray bill. Area below the bill is a mess; hints of dark
moustachial and malar with a pale sub-moustachial but hard to
tell from the photos.
Back brown with conspicuous contrast relative to the head. Throat white, leading onto the upper breast which is demarcated from the lower breast by an indistinct lower line. Lower breast and flanks showing prominent warm coloration with faint streaking. My recollection in the field is that the streaking was even warmer than shown in the photos.
The primaries are slaty brown with fine brownish edges. The secondaries are noticeably browner with pale veins and showing wear on the outer edges. However, note that the innermost visible secondary (S7 or S8; how many secondaries are missing or not visible?). It shows the dark centers of the primaries and doesn't show the wear of the rest of the secondaries. The primary coverts are dark centered but show significant pale edges on the outer webs. The median and lesser coverts do not show the dark centers of the greater coverts.
The rectrices show weak contrast relative to the back of the bird but are more closely colored to the primaries than the back. The outer rectrices (R6?) are noticeably shorter than the inner rectrices which suggest active tail molt. This bird resembles one of the birds that Ron described here.
Analysis:
We can probably safely exclude all
other species other than SAGE SPARROW. The taxonomy of Sage Sparrow
is somewhat controversial. Most standard field guides separate
interior birds into separate species A. nevadensis, but
Pyle maintains that interior birds are a subspecies A. belli
nevadensis. If I read Pyle correctly (see Fig. 13), then
this bird is in complete wing molt. S7 through S9 (or tertials)
are new while the inner secondaries are old, showing considerable
wear. The inner primaries should be new (may be visible in the
top photo) while the outer primaries should be retained (P9 and
P10 showing wear). AHY SAGS shows complete molt between June
and September, while HY is partial/incomplete. So, it appears
the bird in these photos is an AHY bird. In terms of (sub)species,
the absence of any significant streaking on the back and the
relative bill size (is that bill small?) suggests the expected
A. (b.) belli.
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