Greetings,
Today, 23 May 2002, while listening to birds on Burch Mountain north of
Wenatchee, Chelan County...a sparrow flew in and landed in sagebrush
habitat right in front of me. The bird was extremely cooperative.
When first IDing the bird I kept going back and forth between Brewer's
Sparrow and Clay-colored Sparrow. The characters noted make me
wonder if this bird could possibly be a Timberline Sparrow..a subspecies
of Brewer's Sparrow that nests from northwestern Montana to Alaska.
The bird was alone and could not be compared directly, but it was a
Spizella sparrow: Small,slim,clear-breasted sparrow with a small bill
and dark eye line. Overall the bird was darker than a typical Brewer's
Sparrow from eastern Washington and some characters were suggestive
for Clay-colored Sparrow, although this bird was not as brightly marked
as a Clay-colored Sparrow. The crown was finely streaked with blackish and
had a narrow gray median line. The supercilium was dull gray mostly
unstreaked, the eye ring was noticeable. A dark eye line behind the eye.
The ear patch was brownish and well defined. The nape was dull grayish with
few streaks. Bill darkish. The back was grayish with very dark streaking.
The breast was grayish-brown and had very, very vague streaking.
This bird looked intermediate between our local Brewer's Sparrows and the
contrasty Clay-colored Sparrow. The nape and supercilium were not nearly
as bright and cleanly marked as in Clay-colored.
Fron US 2 at Wenatchee, go north on Easy St, then right on Peters Street to
Burch Mountain Rd. Follow Burch Mountain Rd for 1.25 miles to the end of the
pavement;
the sparrow was seen about 500 feet further up the road.

Dave Beaudette
Wenatchee,WA
drtbrdr at earthlink.net