Mystery Bird: Olive Sparrow, Arremonops rufivirgatus

Beautiful shot!

Can't see it from work- must be a Chipping Sparrow to get Paul all worked up!

Lorie

That really is a gorgeous shot. No, definitely not a Chipping Sparrow. My hint for David: the specific part of the scientific name makes me think of Lothario roofing contractors putting moves on innocent young maidens. (Well, actually, I know enough Latin -- barely -- to know that that's actually a color reference. But "innocent young maidens" was more fun.)

Thanks John, unfortunately today I will have to put off anything Times Crossword-related until later this afternoon, however if I put lothario (meaning seducer) with a color reference together with Dean's possible Lory, all I would come up with would be the Yellow-and-green Lorikeet, Trichoglossus flavoviridis, where the glossus refers to "tongues", the flav refers to Flavor Flav, the rapper-turned TV lothario with flavus also Latin for "yellow" and viridis "green" and also somewhat homophonic with virility or virginity... however they are endemic to Sulawesi and I can't possibly extrapolate "roofers", so I'll keep trying in a couple of hours...!

The lorie is a bit of a red herring. You were actually closer to the mark with Chipping Sparrow.

I think this one may have beaten me. The only thought is that I've seen this in Mexico, and I think that the nearest Greco-latin would be "red virgin" John. Am I close?

Going out on a limb here:

Yellow-green Vireo. Red eye and overall yellowish color.

Hmmm, the word vireo should come from the Latin virere "to become green" so in addition to the yellow-gree of flavoviridis as I suggested before, I see no virginal, nubile, or red connection... although it is indeed a passerine and closer to a sparrow than to a parrot!

Thinking about flavoviridis as a specific name we would have the Wedge-tailed Jery, Hartertula flavoviridis but that is a warbler endemic to Madagascar; or a subspecies of the Green Bee-eater, Merops orientalis flavoviridis but's closer to the Sudan... specifics with "red", there's the Buff-bellied Pipt, Anthus rubescens (no virgins or roofers there!); the endangered Marquesan Ground-dove, Gallicolumba rubescens from French Polynesia; or even the Green-throated Sunbird, Nectarinia rubescens, but it's from Africa and unless an escape, I daren't assume John's Freudian connection between "innocent young maidens" and ripe peaches, so off on another tack...

Might just have to wait until I can actually see this bird!

Looks like an Olive Sparrow (Arremonops rufivirgatus). Olive-green back, striped crown, olive-gray underside, striped crown, bicolor bill, pinkish legs. A handsome bird.

aaagghh, of course! rufivirgatus, however while the rufi indeed comes from the Latin rufus for "red" (and has that "roofer" connection!), I'm pretty sure the virgatus comes from virga for twig, or in this case "striped" unless again, Freud is smiling at John and... no, better leave that one well alone!

The suggestion by Sarah fits in with Adrian's Mexico connection- the Olive Sparrow is found both in southern Texas and Mexico... (and does indeed look similar to the vireo suggested by lectric lady), so I'm off home to see for myself!

@lectric lady

Interesting guess -- but ...

Generally speaking, the first thing to check out on a bird is the bill, and this guy has a very stout, conical bill. In a vireo, the upper and lower edges to the bill would be much closer to parallel, producing a slightly stouter version of a warbler's bill. A more subtle point available in a photo like this is that a vireo's bill should have a hook on the end -- a very small one, but there nonetheless. The next thing to check would be the overall shape (actually, you often pick this up without trying). The long tail on this bird doesn't fit vireo at all -- they are all pretty short-tailed. The next thing I like to look at is the face pattern -- it turns out that with the exception of gulls, you can identify almost all North American birds with just a good view of the head (maybe not flycatchers, but who can ID them anyways?). In this case, I can see where the vireo idea came from -- Red-eyed and Yellow-green Vireos both have red eyes and eyelines. But, in the Red-eyed, the crown is smooth gray, and the eyeline is blackish in front fading to olive at the back. In Yellow-green, the eyeline is grayish the entire length, again fading into the nape at the back -- much more subtle than in Red-eyed. In this bird, we have a strong brownish eyeline that doesn't really fade out at the back, and we have a crown that is brown with dark streaks, and a gray median stripe. Finally, in either vireo, the undersides would be much cleaner -- whitish in Red-eyed, whitish with a strong yellow wash on the sides in Yellow-green. The somewhat murky gray color on this bird doesn't fit a vireo (well, maybe a Gray Vireo, but nothing else looks right.)

David, how the heck does your mind work like that! I would love/dread to be in your classes!

Another long Friday in the District- taxation without representation and more snow!

Looks like Sarah did in fact nail it, the only sparrow with an olive back, and for the record, of the nine or so subspecies that range from southern Texas through Mexico and also into Nicaragua and Costa Rica, the US version is the nominate, Arremonops rufivirgatus rufivirgatus.

Maggie, LOL! But believe me, you do not want to journey into my mind!

Paul, and I believe the female Black-capped (atricapilla) and both sexes of the Black-whiskered (altiloquus) also have red irises...

OK, psweet, I see why it isn't a vireo. But olive sparrows don't have red eyes. Are you all suggesting that this is a trick photo because the 'red eye' option was not turned off? Or maybe a Chipping Sparrow in disguise?

lectric lady-
Re: the eye color
This photo was taken in the early evening before sunset. There is no 'red eye' from a camera flash, since no flash was used. The light hitting the bird is natural light with warmer hues, which is highlighting the rich chocolate brown eyes of the bird. Just thought I would add that tidbit of info so it was clear! :)

Thanks, Amy. And good catch, lectric lady -- I hadn't caught that the eye color was 'wrong'. Although now that I check, both Sibley's and NatGeo show generic dark eyes for this species. I can't find Rising's sparrow book (actually, for this sort of thing the photo version would be preferable, and I don't have it). Interesting that we have a point that the books apparently have wrong.

A chicken. Because it clearly isn't a duck. (Ducks are yellow and rubbery, and it's neither.)

Paul/Amy,

Although I believe that most passerines have dark eyes, there are a number of species where there is transition across a palette of iris color from more brown to more red as birds mature or between geographically dispersed populations within a species.

I don't know enough about avian biology to ascertain how these changes occur, whether as in the case of the African Pied Starling, Spreo bicolor, increasing amounts of pigment are deposited as the birds mature, or whether, as in the case of pigeons and other bird species, the variability within individuals (obviously genetic) is more to do with the positioning of certain pigments (carotenoids distributed more towards the periphery produce differing "eye colors" as compared to the same pigment deposited on the inner iris), or even what combination of various pigments- carotenoids, pteridines, purines- vary between or within any given species.

Given the relatively large number of subspecies of Olive Sparrow (with the overall population trend increasing), and expected (I assume) intergrade genetic drift, do you think that the eye color of the individual above is indeed more "red" as compared to other Texan individuals whose photos seem to dominate the search engines we tend to navigate through when we compare and contrast?

My "Buntings and Sparrows" by Clive Byers et al gives the eye colour of the adult as reddish-brown, duller in juveniles. If the light is behind Amy, as it appears to be, then it could make the eye brighter red than it should be.

David et al.
Light definitely makes a difference in color photography. Below is a group of 3 different shots of the bird's head at different angles, same shoot. Notice how brown the eye in the first shot appears and how red the last one appears-all depending on the angle at which the light is hitting it:
http://day-lab.com/olivespeye1.jpg

Thanks Amy! I was recently asking myself the same question wih regard to a series of photos of Olive Sparrows by Greg Lasley and saw some very slight differences within individuals but also noted a distinct color diffrerence between sparrows from different counties in Texas, taken with the same camera I believe- perhaps more noteworthy was the very definite difference in coloration in one individual in photos 1 and 3 of a sparrow photographed in Starr County, April 2007, showing a distinct yellow edge to the alula or primary coverts that I've not seen before.

that's a rather impressive yellow edge ..

David, Rising and Beadle's Sparrow book mentions yellow on the bend for Olive Sparrows, and shows it in the illustration. Might the apparent lack of yellow in most photographs be a result of the bend of the wing being hidden by other feathers?

They also mention a light brown iris, but show a dark eye on one bird (barely noticeable brown tint) and a medium brown eye on the other.

Paul, in almost every reference to Olive Sparrows I find the phrase "sexes similar", but I wonder of the differences in alula brightness we see in photographs is gender-based?

One study I came upon yesterday looks at the correlation between testes size and plumage variations (and the associated prevalence of haematozoan infections) between several populations of the Greenfinch (Carduelis chloris) where the higher the phenotypic quality the brighter (read: more yellow) the plumage, notably in the alula.

I have also noted that molting limits seem to ensure that bright coloration of the alula in juveniles is purposely limited as in this banding report for Yellow Palm Warblers (Dendroica palmarum hypochrysea)...

perhaps alula coloration is one of the markers used by females in sexual selection?