I am a native in this world And think in it as a native thinks

Sunday, November 27, 2011

Sunday bird blogging


Small brownish striped birds are second only to gulls in being difficult to identify -- there are always at least half a dozen possibilities to pick from, mostly endless variations on the theme of sparrow.

I could pretend that I told myself that this bird was the wrong shape for a sparrow, and the head was too plain, and the body too big, and the beak not quite right.

All of which is true, but since this bird was in the same yard in Albany with the trees full of finches, I had the luxury of identifying it as a female house finch first, and reasoning backwards from there to list all the reasons why only an idiot could mistake this for a sparrow.

And I do love the way she's perched, straddling the fork at the top of the tree.

1 comment:

Elisa said...

Bird looks like it's growing right out of the branches -- same color. Another wonderful picture.
Thank you for reminding me of the beauty all around us.

Blog Archive