FreeLists / tn-bird / [TN-Bird] Query from a friend

[Dthomp2669@xxxxxxx]

Hello Birders,

An acquaintance in Dickson County sent me the following query.  I'm passing 
it along to see if any of you would care to comment on his 
observations/questions.  If so, send it along, and I'll copy and paste to the 
querant.

<Allow me to address a birding question to you while I have your attention.  
I recall my father's differentiation between the true sparrow species here and 
house or English sparrows.  Dad despised the latter, partially at least 
because of their less-than-sanitary nesting habits which seem very reminiscent 
of 
that other "foul" English import, the starling, but also, I am certain, over 
their eating of the chicken feed put out by his grandmother for her poultry as 
he grew up.  In fact, he said that there was a poison that she mixed with the 
chicken feed (nux vomica, perhaps) that eliminated anything that consumed it 
which was born with its eyes closed (which would of course if true include 
mice) 
but didn't harm domestic poultry, which as you doubtless know hatch right out 
with both eyes wide open.  He said that this eliminated the English sparrow 
problem, but would of course harm many native bird species.  Is there anything 
to this story of selective poisoning in your experience or that of your 
friends?

I suppose what got me thinking about this was my observation of a small flock 
of sparrows (about twenty) yesterday evening while waiting for my wife.  All 
had the markings of the sort of sparrows that I see most frequently and the 
small build of native species, not English sparrows.  But about a quarter of 
them had little black masks, just around their beaks -- not a large area 
covering 
most of their face like English sparrows and chickadees do, but a very small 
one mostly just below their mouths.  Is this a subspecies perhaps, or some 
sort of genetic drift?  I understand that English and true sparrows are not 
even 
of the same genus, let alone the same species, which would thus make 
interbreeding impossible.  Do you have any idea of what gives here?  Could 
these birds 
be a "sport," kind of like the cardinal that I observed at a policyholders 
house years ago with a white rather than a black "mask"?  Is this something 
common that I have never taken the time and interest to observe before?  If you 
could comment on this, I would be greatly pleased.>

That's what he wrote, so let us know what you think.

Thanks a lot & happy birding,

Dee Thompson 
Nashville, TN
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