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

Sunday, March 18, 2012

Sunday bird blogging





You're probably thinking, "I know this one! We had this one a couple of weeks ago. Nuthatch, right?"

Good guess, and thank you for playing! But no, this is definitely not a nuthatch; this is a brown creeper, and I've known how to tell them apart for at least three or four weeks now.

One thing you learn very quickly if you're crazy enough to develop an interest in birds is that just because the shape, size and behavior are practically identical does not mean the birds are the same, or even related, as any time spent leafing through the very long section of any field guide devoted to the thousand or so species of New World sparrow will tell you. (I personally can identify five of them. And really, I think that's quite enough.)


Unlike nuthatches, creeper coloring is designed to blend in with the tree trunks where they hang out, so sometimes you don't even realize they're there until they start to move.

(Late posting today, but the sun didn't come out until this afternoon and I didn't see any reason why I should be productive until then.)

No comments:

Blog Archive