This week’s featured creature is, as far as I know, a permanent resident in the Ada area. It is fairly easy to identify, if just by the size alone. They are among the smallest sparrows and are about ...

A chipping sparrow has built a nest in one of the Ponderosa pine trees I planted when we moved to our place west of Gilby, N.D. The work was probably done by the female. The female also tends the nest ...

We moved back to Maine a little over two years ago and one of the most fun things about the move for me has been starting a journal chronicling changes in nature as the year progresses. So now I am ...

Sparrows are a difficult group nicknamed LBJs, aka little brown jobs. Most are indeed small and brown and look similar. A closer inspection with binoculars reveals key features to secure the ID. The ...

The idea was simple: Finding myself without a candidate for bird of the week, I figured I’d step outside and then write about the first species I saw. I admit that I cheated by going out the garage ...

With some 20 species of sparrows inhabiting Georgia at least part of the year, and with many of them having similar brown plumages, the small birds can be a headache to identify. I’ve taken classes in ...

Had I lived 100 years ago and taken an interest in birds in the 1800s, I might have been told that the chipping sparrow (Spizella passerina) was “a hair-bird” because it lines the nest with horsehair, ...

Vendors at baseball parks used to hawk their wares with these words, "Buy your scorecards here. You can't tell the players without a scorecard." That's an appropriate approach to identifying the ...

I am guilty of a statement concerning a group of birds of our area. The statement is that these small birds are sometimes overlooked or ignored by observers (myself included) searching diligently for ...

One of the hardiest sparrows, this is the only one likely to winter in much of the far northern United States and southern Canada, where the dark-eyed junco can also be found. At that season it is ...