ML564802601

Age

Not specified

Sex

Not specified

Media notes

A continuing Cassin's Sparrow that was initially found the previous afternoon by Sammy Cowell here photographed by Curtis A. Marantz on 27 April 2023 at the Ventura Settling Ponds, Ventura, Ventura County, California.

Observation details

Seen well both foraging more-or-less in the open under the Myoporum trees and also at the edge of the grass and herbaceous growth along the edge of the road. This bird did fly up into the lower branches of the trees, but I do not think I ever saw it even a meter above the ground. I never heard this bird vocalize. The views were quite good and at distances down to about four meters at its closest point, but the sparrow was often obscured, and I lost track of it for about two hours during the middle part of my visit. I thought this was a relatively small sparrow that I estimated to be similar in length to a Song Sparrow (Melospiza melodia), but a bit slimmer overall. The bill was rather massive basally, but tapering to a pointed tip along a culmen that was straight if not very slightly decurved. I further estimated that the bill would have extended backward on the face to a point near the rear edge of the eye, and would even more roughly that it was about twice as deep at the base as it was long. Thye forehead was sloping, but I thought the crown was as well up to a subtle peak about where it met the nape, so this bird had neither an obviously flat-crowned or rounded appearance. The head was unremarkable in size for a sparrow, and smaller in proportion to the bird than that of a Grasshopped Sparrow (Ammodramus savannarum). The neck was also not as short or stalky as that of a Grasshopper Sparrow, but the body was at least moderately plump, full-chested, and with a posture that was probably closer to horizontal than diagonal with the tail held downward in the plane of the body. The wings were quite short, with a primary projection that appeared to be about one-fifth the length of the exposed secondaries, and with the somewhat rounded wingtips apparently reaching right about to the tips of the uppertail coverts; however, I was unable to see how many primary tips were visible beyond the longest secondary. The tail was slim and relatively long for a sparrow, in that I thought it was about as long as the body without the head and neck, if not slightly longer. I further thought the tail was parallel-sided when closed, though possibly tapering inward distally, but the tip appeared jagged and possibly a bit worn. The legs appeared long, even for a sparrow, but they were relatively slim, and it is possible that their pale coloration accentuated their length. This was a light brown bird overall, and generally rather plainly colored, yet when examined carefully, complex patterns were apparent. The forehead and crown were dark brown with a slight reddish cast along with fine dark and buff streaks, and an inconspicuous median-stripe that was lighter and more grayish. The dark cap extended back to the nape and down to the superciliary region. Demarcating the lower edge of the cap was a light gray to buffy-gray supercilium that was relatively narrow before the eye, but broader behind the eye, and seemingly ending at a rounded terminus roughly above the rear edge of the auriculars. The lores were unmarked and about the same color as the supercilium to which they were connected, and complementing the supercilium was a submoustachial stripe of about the same color. Although there was no loral stripe, there was a postocular stripe that extended from behind the eye back along the upper edge of the auriculars to their rear terminus, at which they ended abruptly. I further noted that the postocular stripe had a rufescent coloration and that it expanded slightly as it extended back across the upper part of the auriculars. I thought the lower portion of the auriculars was about the same color as the submoustachial region and that the two were connected. A weak eyering was similar in color to the supercilium and seemingly more conspicuous on the bird’s left side than on the right, which means that the ground color below and behind the eye was just a bit darker than the eyering. Demarcating the pale submoustachial-region from a similarly colored through was a diffuse malar-stripe that extended downward and backward from the base of the lower mandible to the corners of the throat where it ended. I thought the malar stripes were of medium width, but they were diffuse throughout their extend and seemingly sooty to dull blackish in coloration. I thought the throat was sandy-brown to buff in color and at most slightly paler than the breast and sides, which were sandy-brown and unmarked. In fact, I thought the breast, belly, and sides were all uniformly sandy-brown and lacking internal pattern or other contrast, which is in large part why the malar stirpes were conspicuous. I cannot now recall if the flanks contrasted as darker than the belly, but I think they did, and I noted quite clearly that there was at least one and possibly two rows of moderately conspicuous, dark brown streaks running along the flanks. I never clearly saw the undertail coverts or the underside of the tail on a bird that I saw exclusively from above. The upperparts were a bit darker and more boldly marked than the underparts. As far as I could determine, the back and sides of the neck were sandy brown with darker brown streaking or mottling, without the purplish and gray streaking that characterizes the neck of Grasshopper Sparrow, but noticeably paler than the postocular stripe. I thought the mantle was sooty brown in color with fine fringes of buff that created a mottled, if not irregularly streaked pattern. The pattern on the larger scapulars was more difficult to characterize, but my impression was that each feather had a blackish spot subterminally that contrasted with deep rufous at the base internally, and finally, each feather had a narrow but well-defined fringe that was either buff or light grayish-buff. The resulting pattern was one of complex mottling. I am not sure I ever clearly saw the lesser or median coverts in the closed wing, but if I did, they not contrast conspicuously with the pattern on the scapulars. The greater coverts, by contrast, had sooty to dull blackish centers that contrasted with narrow, but well-defined tips that appeared to be cream colored, if not dull whitish, and which appeared as a narrow wingbar that extended straight across the middle part of the wing, and also equally narrow edges of buff to sandy brown that produced a row of narrow stripes just above the wingbar. At one point I thought I may have seen darker primary-coverts, but I could never confirm this. In general, the remiges had narrow edges of cinnamon-buff that produced a frosted appearance to the rear part of the wing rather than a conspicuously striped pattern. The innermost secondaries, however, appeared to have sooty centers that contrasted with this same cinnamon-buff, but also with the tips more whitish, which facilitated my seeing the various feathers on the inner part of the wing. There may have been narrow, dark bands subterminally on these feathers, but again, I could not be sure about this in the field. I did think the exposed primary tips were dark brown and unmarked. I had a difficult time seeing clearly the uppertail coverts around the tips of the closed wings, but what I could see appeared to represent blackish spots amid a brown background. I never could see anchor-shaped markings on these feathers, but I did not see them at all well. My views of the upperside of the tail were likewise not very good, in that I saw a warm dark brown color with some suggestion of barring, but really could not make out anything more than this. The will was a light grayish-horn in color on both mandibles, but seemingly with a somewhat darker culmen. The eyes were dark brown, and the legs and toes were pinkish-flesh in color and conspicuously pale relative to the rest of the bird. I further thought the claws were dark, but I did not see them overly well.

Technical information

Model

ILCE-7RM5

Lens

FE 200-600mm F5.6-6.3 G OSS

ISO

800

Focal length

600 mm

Flash

Flash did not fire

f-stop

f/8.0

Shutter speed

1/400 sec

Dimensions

3852 pixels x 2396 pixels

Original file size

10.31 MB