Song Sparrow

Song Sparrow
Lake Chabot, Castro Valley, California, USA
January 2015
Member of the American Sparrow Family
§A Choir of Sparrows§

~true bird fact~ The Song Sparrow has a song complex enough that even skilled mimic birds, like the Northern Mockingbird can't copy him. They sing so much because this is their way of attracting mates. A male Song Sparrow's song doesn't just tell a female what a good singer he is- she uses it as a marker to determine his intelligence and ability to learn and remember, thus ensuring a strong species. Sparrows have more going on than expected.

Sensitive to a fault. Others' problems hang heavily on him
Comes off as confidant, or even cocky to acquaintances
Finds joy/peace in travel
Notices the little details



Amateurnitholog
Back in 2012, I wrote a holiday special Father's Day blog post in which I covered a family of birds that I had seen living in a drain pipe outside a Peet's Coffee (shoutout to good coffee). This was the first of my (rarely repeated) feature looking at bird homes. Yesterday I saw a bird that seemed to have made a nest inside the light of a working traffic signal and really wished I had my camera. Anyway, in that long ago post I identified the birds as "likely to be... Song Sparrows". If you're a regular reader, you can probably guess where this is going. Looking back at it now, it seems clear to me that 1) There is no indication that those were Song Sparrows 2) I don't know what those birds are and 3) I'm not going to do the research now. We apologize and retract our previous claim, dear blog reader. More interesting though, what does finding this mistake now mean? A sign of growth? An indicator of my still-amateur status? Maybe a little of everything. Your amateurnithologist, signing off.