Posted by Dave Irons (205.188.197.46) on May 27, 2000 at 21:08:42:
I'll start with the vireo which seems to be fairly straight forward. Unless Warbling can show dark lores this bird looks to be a Philadelphia. The short looking small bill, lack of black above the whitish eyeline point away from Red-eyed. Although it is tough to get much in terms of color off this bird it does appear to be pretty yellow on the undertail coverts.
The sparrow is more of a puzzler. If I were to see only the head of this bird I would think that it has to be a juvenile Chipping Sparrow. The dark line extending through the lores and behind the eye combined with a relatively obvious whitish supercilium and streaked earth tone crown all point to Chipping. The shape and upperparts are also consistent with my image of a young Chipping.
What troubles me about this bird is the very long crisp black streaking of the underparts. These markings are not consistent with what I have seen on Chippings. This streaking is more suggestive of some of the darker races of Savannah Sparrow. I don't think this bird is a Savannah because the bill seems too small and the face pattern is not right for a Savannah.
My final thought on this bird turns to immature 'Timberline' Sparrow. According to what I've read they show very strong dark streaking to the underparts. However I do not know much about their face pattern. My conclusion is that this bird is either a very heavily streaked juv. Chipping or a like aged Timberline Sparrow. I'll look forward to other commentary on this bird.