Surprisingly, or maybe really not so surprisingly the number of good Song
Sparrow photos in ebird is very limited. Some counties have a good number ,
other counties have zero or very few. If I recall, Harney county photos were
very limited. Made me realize not to pass over good photo ops of any
species. Never know when the info may be needed by someone scanning your
county from afar, looking for a similar bird to one hanging out on some dusty
country road.
What we need is two or three good photos of the typical Song Sparrow(s) in each
county/state in the US, then a big map to put them on. Issue would be solved. I
would think a future ebird version will do that.
Bob Archer
On Mar 6, 2019, at 2:36 PM, Robert O'Brien <baro@xxxxxxx> wrote:
Dave Iron's comments are well taken as to uncertain naming of subspecies.
And, they are more or less in line with an advisory
for Orange-crowned Warbler
See
https://ebird.org/pnw/news/orange-crowned-warblers-oreothlypis-celata-in-the-pacific-northwest/
However, if the sighting/photos are just named 'Song Sparrow' then they
likely would never be found by any future searcher/researcher
looking specifically for the distribution and vagrancy of specific races,
unless such a person searched through the likely huge number of song sparrow
photographs on eBird, McCauley Library and came across an usual photograph.
On the other hand, it the photo was named incorrectly as to subspecies then
in future it would be be much easier to find, especially if a searcher
just looked at the distribution/sightings maps where it would be 'out of
place' (as a vagrant) on the map. That researcher could then decide whether
it
was named correctly as to subspecies, and perhaps change the subspecies name
to the correct one if necessary.
Now, if there were no photos to submit I would agree with the 'no-name'
nomenclature because, even from a description alone it would
be difficult to know if the subspecific ID was correct.
Bob OBrien
Bob OBrien
On Tue, Mar 5, 2019 at 2:35 PM Bob Archer <rabican1@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Hi: I would be curious if any birders from western Montana, Utah, Idaho or
Alberta would consider this bird a strange looking Song Sparrow. If it is
strange to them, then I would think a CA bird is better solution. Based on
zero reliable evidence, just me using Search Photo feature in ebird, the
rufous coloring in montana is fairly reliable, but I can find more brown/
black the farther east I search. Alberta has a different ssp but looked
similar. I have not given up on it being montana yet. Though the lack of
any rufous in stripes and malar is a huge issue for it being montana, from
my view.
Anyone know anybody in the interior west?
Bob Archer
On Mar 5, 2019, at 11:31 AM, David Irons <LLSDIRONS@xxxxxxx> wrote:
In private and back channel
discussions about this bird multiple people have raised the possibility
that it might of the subspecies M. m. heermanni, which is a relatively
sedentary population in central to southern California. I had considered
this as a possibility, as heermanni seems to be a good match in terms of
appearance. Interestingly, there is a virtually identical bird wintering
along Bond Lane near the Eugene Airport. It seems unlikely that
non-migratory birds would wander north in Fall from California, but perhaps
there was a weather or fire-related dispersal. I like the fact that this
bird has created so much interest.
Dave Irons
Beaverton, OR
