Bird of the Day: Clay-colored Sparrow

Went out yesteday morning in an attempt to get the Basin first arrival record of Clay-colored Sparrow (Spizella pallida). We went to 'the' spot for them, had a good listen and a lot of false alarms with all the other sparrows flying around. In the end, no Clay-colored, but we did get some good birding in with a bunch of newly arrived warblers.

Upon return to the dorm, a check of the birding listserve reveiled a Clay-colored Sparrow - at a birder's feeder in collegetown. A hop, skip, and jump later, Shawn Billerman and I found ourselves watch the Clay-colored, along with Chipping, Field (for a Spizella trifecta!), White-throated, White-crowned, and E. Towhee. Here are some of my lousy photos:


Here's a few comparisons with other sparrows (unfortunately I missed the 3-Spizella shot):


Here's a few other photos:


And, now that you suffered through my poor photography, here's some much better photography of the Clay-colored:

Some photos by Chris T-H
A few stunners by David Ruppert