Clay-colored Sparrow! Yippee!

Amazing how one bird can really make your day! Like this beautiful sparrow here. This is a Clay-colored Sparrow, a rare bird to the Eastern Shore. Although I would suspect that this species shows up here on the shore every fall, they are always in very, very low numbers. And so catching one is even more unlikely. But it does happen. Since 1996, only one other Clay-colored has been banded here. And historically, only 19 have been banded here since 1963. And since I just love sparrows, you know I was extremely excited! I know some people have problems identifying this species from Chipping sparrows, but here are a few helpful hints (you can use the picture of the Chipping Sparrow a few posts below to have a comparison). Clay-coloreds lack the black line that is in front of the eye. They also have brown rumps, whereas, Chipping have gray. Also, note the back color. More tan color in Clay-coloreds, rusty-brown in Chipping. Catching this one gave us 92 species for the season!