ML124742271

Beobachtungsdetails

Clearly White-throated Sparrow(WTSP)-like, but certainly not spot on. The white throat is noticeably diffuse, the bill is somewhat bi-colored, darker gray on top and fleshier on bottom, the eyeline tapers off just shortly behind the eye, and there is no hint of yellow visible anywhere on the face, or lore areas. As far as I can tell, the first three of these traits can be found on immature Golden-crowned Sparrow(GCSP), though this doesn't fit either. The pale eyebrow and crown-stripes do not fit, in addition to again not yellow anywhere. Which leaves White-crowned Sparrow(WCSP), once again plenty wrong. Bi-colored bill, eyeline, faint white throat.. After some digging around and looking through photos, I believe this to be a hybrid between WTSP x WCSP. To my eye, this bird has clear WTSP parentage. All photos I have found of hybrids involving GCSP have shown a considerable amount of yellow on the forehead, where this bird clearly has none. Photos of presumed WTSP x WCSP I have found all look somewhat similar to this bird, but with more of a "WCSP-feel" to them, including more white around the crown and supercilium. Although faint and hard to notice, this bird does have lores whiter than the rest of the crown (can be seen in multiple angles), which would support WCSP being the second parent as well. The only problem feature I can find for this hybrid combo is the quick-ending eyestripe. This is shown on all the other putative hybrids I can find as well.