A few weeks ago I posted that I had seen a tree sparrow on the ground under
my feeder. ID was based on dark upper mandible, yellow lower mandible, and
plain gray sides. I have had 2 of these beasties show up under my feeder
today, and have had a better chance to study them. Yes, they have a black
upper mandible and yellow lower, but the eye stripe is black and the feet
pink. No central breast spot was noticed. Therefore, I am rescinding my
former post and calling these aberrant chippies ( as Simon proposed with my
first ID).
I would be curious to know if anyone else has seen chippies with bi-colored
bills. They do change color from dark to pink, going from summer to
winter, but I've not read that the change can be partial.
Yes, I've got lots of pictures. The good ones are in RAW and I don't know
how to send those out yet.
Merry birding!
Kitti
--
Dr. Barbara C. (Kitti) Reynolds
Professor Emerita, Department of Environmental Studies
University of North Carolina at Asheville
Asheville, NC 28804
