The everpresent passerines
Now here's a species that is normally overlooked, given how common it is; glad this week's SMAP puts them in the spotlight!
Sparrows it is! Although we normally think of sparrow as one species, there are actually several species of them. In Portugal we can see four different species, although the house sparrow is by far the most common.
Males and females are very easy to tell apart: see the difuse black spot coming down the throat to the chest? Males have them, females don't: that easy!
Their cheeks are white or grey. Here, i don't know if they had been feeding recently and got their faces dirty, or if it was the fact that I took these photos near the golden hour, as the sun was already quite low, and changed the colours a little bit. They did look great in this light, though!
A few meters where this photo was taken, another male was resting from all the chirping, sun shining right into his face.
Look at the colour difference from this photo I took a few years ago, in a rural setting:
Snowy white cheeks!
It's not uncommon seeing sparrows perch in a resting position, withouth their legs straight; in the fence from the second photo, several male sparrows were perching, some chirping like crazy, others just chilling out: so it was easy to spot different perching positions.
Notice the different cheeks again?
This one was really into finding a girlfriend, he couldn't stop chirping!
The photos at the fence were taken just a few dozen meters from my house. A couple days ago I decided to do a little urban birdwatching, and it's amazing the amount of species present, even with very limited garden space around. I was able to photograph 5 different species, and seen a couple more that I wasn't able to capture on camera, in just a few minutes! Just goes to show that if we pay attention, we might realise that there is far more biodiversity around us at all times than we would think possible; but that will be a subject for another post... don't wan't to rob any protagonism to these little everpresent guys!
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We have sparrows again. They don't hang around for the winter. Amazing the variety of birds that are around everyday. You just don't appreciate them after awhile lol
Absolutely; and most people don't realise they exist, they see a small bird in an urban setting and think "sparrow". Honestly, I'm seeing a lot more black redstarts than sparrow these days. Thanks for the visit! !BEER
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BEER.You are so funny for saying that he is in search of a girlfriend
Hahaha
You had enough time to take pictures of the bird and even the bird pose for the picture😂
He probably is, we're in mating season! :))
👍Why is his muzzle yellow? Got dirty?😃
I was considering blaming it on the awesome late afternoon colours... but that is probably the correct option! :)
Pardais para todos os gostos! Parabéns por mais uma publicação de qualidade, patrão!
Ainda gostava de saber onde andaram eles a enfiar as cabeças! :P
Deixa de ser cusco, pá! (:
É curiosidade científica! ;)
Lovely shots! The humble sparrows are indeed so common, that many stopped noticing them.
Speaking about the biodiversity around us, this afternoon while walking the dog near my home I saw in the sky boothed eagle, common buzzard and couple of kestrels within five minutes.
Wow, so many birds of prey! Kestrels and buzzards are sometimes perched in the lamps nearby, but been a while since I've seen them. Hope to visit my grandparent's village soon, there will be time for a few birdwatching sessions... and hopefully photos! ;)
We have lots of raptors. Marsh harriers can be seen from time to time. Honey buzzards are back, they just pass by.
So nice. It's been ages since I've seen my last marsh harrier!
Yeah, we got lots and lots of those little guys! They're everywhere! 😄
Absolutely! :)
Chirpy little characters always around the home, look similar in different regions not the same. Nice patch of yellow on your ones cheeks.
This sparrow is probably one of the most widespread species, they're everywhere! Dunno where these guys stuffed their heads though, but do like the colourful cheeks! :) !LUV
Each region slightly different colouring in feathers suitable to the flora around. !LOLZ
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I thought that a sparrow was a sparrow never realizing that so many different kinds existed. I'll have to keep a keener eye out, but it sure would help if they stayed put for more than a second or two.
A week or so ago there wasn't a sparrow to be found in my area so I couldn't enter the #featheredfriends #SMaP contest. Just yesterday there were sparrows all over the place. I guess they just arrived from their winter Vacation.
Yeah, and the same aplies to a ton of other species, seagulls for instance; most people see them and don't realise there are tons of different species. Sparrows are a year-long presence here... they probably enjoy the mild climate! :) !PIZZA
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Thanks for the pizza, and home delivery, I love it. The closest pizza joint to us is over 20 miles away, needless to say, we don't run out to get a pizza too often.😥