Hi tweets,

Well, its Spring break for me, so I am finally beginning to get caught up
on some of my e-mail.

I thought I would ask for opinions on a very strange sparrow which Jason
Starfire and I have been seeing at Shoreview. Neither one of us has seen
anything like it before, and unfortunately, it has foiled all of my
attempts (about 7 now) to get a photo. Here goes:

Very large sparrow, about the size of a large fox sparrow.
Dark brown/chocolaty back with a slightly lighter colored tail (almost
gives impression of having a few reddish tones)
There are also black streaks on the back, but they are easy to miss
because the back color is so dark.
Large white auricular patch! (this is getting more and more interesting)
black malar stripe, gray supercilliary and rufous cap.
The breast is white and streaked/spotted. The pattern (if it could be
called that) is hard to make out but reminds me more of a fox
sparrow than anything else.
Legs are flesh colored.

Now for its behavior:

Call is very similar to Song Sparrow (actually when hearing it call back
and forth with Song Sparrows the only difference I have noticed is that
it is a louder and slightly harsher sounding "chuck" call.
It doesn't usually stand still for very long and flits through the ferns
and underbrush on the hillside.

Jason...did I miss anything? feel free to jump in and add anything.

We think that it has got to be a hybrid of some sort, but we haven't
figured out of just what yet. The auricular patch is the bird's
strangest feature. Any ideas?

Later,

Michael Dossett
Bothell, Washington
mpdossett at juno.com
phainopepla at yahoo.com
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