ML150165051

Age and sex

Unknown age, Female - X

Media notes

Female CCLO; Enchanted Rock SNA, Llano Co., TX.

Observation details

Winter-plumaged female. Overall a brownish sparrow-like bird, with indistinct buffy superciliary, dark post-ocular line and subauricular spot, plain buffy breast with a few fine streaks and blurry smudges on sides of breast, whiter on belly and undertail coverts. Crown and nape finely streaked brown. Back streaked brown with indistinct paler braces. Wings brown with moderately distinct whitish wingbars; median coverts a bit darker than greaters. Tail dark brown in center in a triangular pattern, outer retrices mostly white with progressively less white towards center; tail pattern seen very well at close range during several short flights. Long claws noted on hind toes. Bill pinkish but gray on ridge (and under mandible?). A brief call note, "klip!" (or doubled), was heard a couple of times during the bird's short flights. Apparently this was a sick or injured bird. It had a few ruffled facial feathers at the base of the bill on the upper side. The bird was foraging or taking drinks of water from the vernal pools on top of Enchanted Rock. It allowed me to approach within about 20 feet and tended to walk away rather than fly. It took about 2 or 3 short flights of 30 to 50 ft to land a bit further from me. Photos obtained with a small point-and-shoot camera from about 20 to 30 ft away.

Technical information

Model

Canon PowerShot SX620 HS

ISO

80

Focal length

23.3 mm

Flash

Flash fired

f-stop

f/5.6

Shutter speed

1/200 sec

Dimensions

685 pixels x 514 pixels

Original file size

399.42 KB