Canon City's Rufous-crowned Sparrows

-
Yesterday morning I found a small group of at least 3 and possibly 4 Rufous-crowned Sparrows, a specialty species that was found in the Tunnel Drive area of Canon City on a Christmas Bird Count about 10 years ago. Though this species is not known to migrate, we only see this species from around October through April or so. (I suspect they move higher up in the canyon gulches common to the Tunnel Drive area to breed, but that is only speculation.) So these were the first of the season birds here. I thought the bottom pic was quite interesting--I caught the bird as it flew down on a big rock though it looked more like jumping down with a little wing assist. Features can be seen up close by double-clicking on each pic but be aware the quality of pic deteriorates (hey, these photos were taken at more than 75 feet and the camera was handheld)
Interestingly, in my experience these sparrows are almost always found in the company of some of the many Canyon Towhees that inhabit the shrub and pinyon-juniper studded rocky hills that are at the mouth of the Royal Gorge canyon. From what I have read, they are often in small family groups for an unknown period of time after breeding so I suspect the birds I saw, which were in fairly close proximity, were likely a family group.
One of the sparrows had rather dull, indistinct markings. I suspect it is a sub-adult Rufous-crowned Sparrow, possibly transtioning from juvenal to Basic I/first fall plumage. See next post. SeEtta

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Spotted Sandpiper Chicks, 3 more days older

-
Image
Two days when I went to check on the Spotted Sandpiper family at Florence River Park I thought they had likely perished--there were two men engaged in gold panning right where the parent sandpiper had been and they had dug some of the sand from the bank where I last saw the sandpiper chicks. Arggh, I was afraid that all this activity, plus a large off leash dog with these people, would have scared the parent away and even if the chicks were successful in hiding in the vegetation they would not survive without a parent at their young age. What a surprise when I returned that evening for one last check to be accosted by the parent sandpiper calling loudly and challenging me by walking right towards me (and my dog). It took awhile for the parent to settle down and for one of the chicks to walk in some grass where I could spot it--the parent had moved the chicks about 150 from the river into an area with a lot of vegetation. I returned day before yesterday and refound the parent and ...
Read more

Recently fledged Common Raven

-
Image
At the end of March this year I spotted a Common Raven going into a crevice above a rock face of a local cliff area called Castle Rock (as part of it looks sort of like a castle). I started watching this area and observed a pair of Common Ravens spending time around this location. On March 27 I spotted one of the ravens inside the crevice which now had what looked like nesting material in it--the photograph of that is the second pic here. I continued off and on to check this apparent crevice nest. At the end of May I saw what appeared to be a nestling inside the crevice. I continued birding in the riparian forest across the Arkansas River from this cliff area. When I was about a quarter mile away I heard a lot of raven racket and walked to a spot where I could see the cliff area through my binoculars. I could see a lot of raven action with the parent birds calling loudly so I expected that the nestling may have fledged or they were trying to get it to fledge. I went back t...
Read more

Band-tailed Pigeons, the mountain pigeons

-
Image
I spotted a small flock of about 9 or 10 of these Band-tailed Pigeons in a tiny unincorporated town called Greenwood which is south of Canon City about 20 miles (via winged flight). The homes in Greenwood are right up against the San Isabel National Forest and forests are the habitat for these mountain pigeons. The white collar on the nape of this species can be seen in the pic above.  The broad pale gray terminal band on a darker upper tail (and below the light undertail coverts) is best seen in pic below.  SeEtta
Read more