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ABA Online Bird Photo Quiz 63
ANSWER
We've got a brown sparrow-like bird in what looks like marsh vegetation. The apparent field marks are few, but it does have a pale superciliary; a darker, brown, eyeline; unmarked chest and belly; and a bicoloed bill (blackish and yellowish). While I could run through the various plain-breasted New World sparrows looking for a match to our field marks, the truth is that the bill color and pattern rule out most of those options and the dark legs (definitely not pink, as are those of most sparrows) eliminate all the others. Oh, did I mention that the legs were dark? Also, looking between the legs, we can see that the undertail coverts have large, dark centers – another feature inconsistent with the appearance of most of the plain-breasted sparrow options.
Well, if it's not a New World sparrow, where else should we look? If it were on the ABA checklist, we might look into Orange Bishop (an exotic becoming established in southern California), but that species has orange legs; at least, those individuals that remotely resemble our quiz bird do. Besides, it is not on the ABA checklist, so is not available as a quiz species. At least, though, the Orange Bishop is in the right section of the taxonomic list, as the only real remaining contenders belong to the Passeridae, the true sparrows (or, as ethnocentric North Americans might say, the Old World sparrows). I took this picture of a female House Sparrow in Lakewood, Jefferson Co., CO, on 21 May 2006.
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The following people (listed by submission date beginning with the earliest) submitted correct answers for the June Bird Photo Quiz – House Sparrow:
- William Jones, Shropshire, England
- Thomas Hall, Livermore, Colorado
- Rick Poulin, Ottawa. Ontario
- Nathan Swick, Chapel Hill, NC
- Rob Lane, Chandler, AZ
- Jim Mountjoy, Galesburg, IL
- Andrew Fayer, Fort Washington, PA
- Alan Dupuis, Cambridge, NY
- Corey Husic, Kunkletown, PA
- Kimberly Sucy, Rochester, NY
- Brendan Fogarty, Hempstead, NY
- Blake Mathys, Milltown, NJ
- George F. Cresswell, Colorado Springs, Colorado
- Aaron Bilyeu, Placerville, CA
- Neil Gilbert, Orange, CA
- Aaron Hulsey, Smiths Grove, Ky
- Richard Jeffers, Santa Clara, CA
- Danny Boatman, Woodbury, MN
- Henry Wilton, Rutland, Vermont
- Benoit Dorion, Saint-Laurent, Quebec, Canada
- Stephen Joly, Kamloops, BC
- Graham Etherington, Norwich, UK
- Greg Schrott, Sebring, FL
- John Kuenzli, Columbus, OH
- Karl Erich Mayer, Saint Clair Shores, Michigan
- Daroczi J. Szilard, Tg.-Mures, Romania
- Willis Brubaker, Wooster , Ohio
- Bret McCarty, lakewood, OH
- Terri Everett, Big Rapids, MI
- Ryan Phillips, San Jose, CA
- Josh Southern, Raleigh, NC
- Matt Pike, Lacey, WA
- Robin LaFortune, Delano, MN
- Brad Hammond, Brooksville, Florida
- Mary Chambers, Petaluma, CA
- Jim Peck, Wausau, WI
- David Bell, Sault Ste. Marie, ON
- Ted Stiritz, Russellville, AR
- Joshua Watson, Gainesville, FL
- Jacob Drucker, New York, NY
- Hope Batcheller, Petersburgh, NY
- Wayne Meyer, Denison, TX
- Marc Ribaudo, Woodbridge, VA
- Malkolm Boothroyd, Whitehorse, Yukon
- Claude Auchu, La Pocatière, Québec
- tom graham, seabrook nh
- Richard Garrigues, San Antonio de Belen, Heredia, Costa Rica
- Marcelo Brongo, Barcelona, Spain
- Amy St. Pierre, Kelly, WY
- Cole Wolf, Albuquerque, NM
- Grant Gardner, Ottumwa, IA
- Adam Betuel, Gainesville, FL
- Kevin Kerr, Guelph, ON
- Andy johnson, Ann Arbor, MI
- John Bissell, Grimes, Iowa
- Ana, West Bend, WI
- Matt Baumann, ABQ, NM
- Joshua Gahagan, Oakham, MA
- Brian E. Small, Los Angeles, CA
- Chris Warren, Portland, OR
- Chris West, Richland Center, WI
- Jonathan Comeau, Williston, VT
- Nigel Bates, Hopewell, NJ
- Larry Kline, Fredericksburg, VA
- Urs Geiser, Woodridge, Illinois
- Josiah LaCelle, Camden, NY
- William Glenn, las Cruces, NM
- Avery Bartels, Nelson, BC, Canada
- John Hammond, Durham, NC
- Philip Kline, Tucson, AZ
- Robert Mottershead, Philadelphia, PA
- Jon Atwood, Keene, NH
- Joshua Covill, Columbia Falls, MT
- Matthew Kenne, Algona, Iowa
- Zachary Loman, Arcata, CA
- Steve Hampton, Davis, CA
- Ian Davies, Medford, MA
- Tom Benson, San Bernardino, CA
- Georgia Conti, Patzcuaro, Mexico
- Chuck carlson, Ft. Peck MT
- Judith Porter, Kingman, Arizona
- Kevin Welsh, Novi, MI
- Jason McGuire, London, ON
- Tucker Lutter, Bronson, IA
- Mitch Ratzlaff, Dallas, OR
- Steve Arlow, Rochford, Essex, England
- Lars Hemmendinger, Arlington, Virginia
- Peter Kniffin, Cedarhurst, NY
- Pete Fenner, East Peoria, IL
- Greg Swick, Ozark, Missouri
- Ed Harper, Sacramento, CA
- David Rosenbaum, Waco, TX
- Anthony H. Bledsoe, Pittsburgh, PA
- Petro Pynnönen, Helsinki, Finland
- Patty McKelvey, Sheffield Village, Ohio
- Melissa Hein, North Branch, MN
- Kevin Bell, Philadelphia, PA
- Barb Duncan, Jefferson City, MO
- Adam Sell, Grayslake, IL
- Jerry Jourdan, Wyandotte, MI
- Myles Falconer, Lakefield, ON Canada
- jake smerchansky, Arlington, Virgina
- James McKay, Mesa, AZ
- Adam Nisbett, St. James, MO
- Geoffrey A. Williamson, Chicago, IL
- Toby Ross, Davis CA
- Kathleen MacAulay, Milford, Nova Scotia
- Brad Wilkinson, Tallmadge, OH
- Glenn Werner, Beaufort, S.C.
- Joy Underhill, Pasadena, CA
- Erica Wunder, Beaufort, S.C.
- Michael Lester, Haworth, NJ
- Annie Meyer, Tacoma, WA
- Carolyn Broussard, Carencro, La
- Matthew Schneider, Silverton, OR
- Tom Qwerty, St. Petersburg, Missouri
- Bobby Walsh, Davis, CA
- Randall Royal, Beaufort, S.C.
- Tim Hochstetler, millersburg OH
- Matthew Daw, Raleigh, NC
- Gerrad Jones, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
- Greg Lawrence, Rochester, NY
- Pam Woodman, New Harbour, NL, Canada
- Robert Doster, Albuquerque, NM
- Jim Kopitzke, Mesa AZ
- Mary Walsh, Valencia, CA
- Matt Medler, Niskayuna, NY
- Linda Swanson, San Francisco, CA
- Spencer Hardy, Norwich, VT
- Alexandre Anctil, Québec, Québec
- Lori Fujimoto, Alameda, CA
- Julie Hart, Hartland, VT
- Shaun Hicks, Morrisville, PA
- Kelly McKinne, Ann Arbor Michigan
- Kathryn Zimmerman, Ann Arbor, Michigan
- Javier de Leon, Edinburg, TX
HOW DID YOU COMPARE?
As stated in the quiz rules, answers must consist simply of the Common or English name exactly as it appears in the ABA Checklist.
The following list shows the number of submissions for each species guessed.
| House Sparrow |  | 136 |
| Dickcissel | | 9 |
| Brown-headed Cowbird | | 8 |
| Indigo Bunting | | 8 |
| Shiny Cowbird | | 3 |
| White-winged Crossbill | | 3 |
| American Tree Sparrow | | 2 |
| Black-and-White Warbler | | 2 |
| Brewer's Sparrow | | 2 |
| Red Crossbill | | 2 |
| Seaside Sparrow | | 2 |
| American Goldfinch | | 1 |
| Blue Grosbeak | | 1 |
| Botteri's Sparrow | | 1 |
| Cassin's Sparrow | | 1 |
| California Towhee | | 1 |
| Field Sparrow | | 1 |
| Lark Bunting | | 1 |
| McCown's Longspur | | 1 |
| Northern Mockingbird | | 1 |
| Pine Siskin | | 1 |
| Purple Finch | | 1 |
| Red-winged Blackbird | | 1 |
| Rose-breasted Grosbeak | | 1 |
| Song Sparrow | | 1 |
| Swamp Sparrow | | 1 |
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The photo and answer for this quiz were supplied by Tony Leukering.
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