tags: swamp sparrow, Melospiza georgiana, birds, Image of the Day
A friend who is a professor of Biology at KSU sent me a bunch of lovely images of sparrows that he took recently while birding. These images are scheduled to appear daily at 3 pm from 6 November through 16 November.
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That's quite a lovely little bird, and picture. Keeping all those LBJs straight is a task and a half, isn't it?
I've recognized a couple of the birds we have in Ohio and enjoyed the others you've put on the blog. "Thanks Hedwig!" & keep'em coming.(great pics!)....LUV IT!
I'm not an ornithologist, but to me this and the other sparrows you posted don't look very sparrow-y, pretty as they are. So I looked it up, and sparrows are from Passeridae, which Melospiza is not in.
So now I'm confused: what makes a sparrow a sparrow?
Old World sparrows are in the family Passeridae. Some of these have been transplanted to the New World (European Tree Sparrow and House Sparrow, Passer montanus and P. domesticus, respectively).
New World sparrows are in the family Emberizidae.