![\"MysterySparrow\"](\"http:\/\/www.elharo.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/05\/MysterySparrow-900x800.jpg\")
<\/p>\nAnyone recognize this bird? There were two of them at the Mcllellan Ranch feeders (in Cupertino, CA) this morning and I didn’t bring a field guide with me on this trip:<\/p>\n
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Maybe a Lincoln’s Sparrow? a Juvenile Swamp Sparrow? a hybrid? unfamiliar subspecies of Song Sparrow? Nothing seems to quite fit.
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It was distinctly rufous, with white outer tail feathers. <\/p>\n
![\"back](\"http:\/\/www.elharo.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/05\/mysterysparrow2-889x900.jpg\" "\\"\\"")
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Thanks folks. It is an immature Oregon Junco (a subspecies of Dark-eyed Junco), a plumage that was not listed in any reference I had available; and is surprisingly hard to find even now that I know what it is. It’s not shown in Sibley’s Western Field Guide, and National Geographic has one unclear picture of this plumage. It really is quite different than the adult. However now that I know what to look for, I can find other pictures of this on the net that are a spot on match. I had considered Junco but didn’t think of immature. The bill and white outer tail feathers were Junco-like, but everything else was so un-Juncoish I really didn’t think that was possible. Live and learn. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Anyone recognize this bird? There were two of them at the Mcllellan Ranch feeders (in Cupertino, CA) this morning and I didn’t bring a field guide with me on this trip: Maybe a Lincoln’s Sparrow? a Juvenile Swamp Sparrow? a hybrid? unfamiliar subspecies of Song Sparrow? Nothing seems to quite fit.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1004239","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-birding"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.elharo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1004239","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.elharo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.elharo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.elharo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.elharo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1004239"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/www.elharo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1004239\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1004254,"href":"https:\/\/www.elharo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1004239\/revisions\/1004254"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.elharo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1004239"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.elharo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1004239"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.elharo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1004239"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}