sparrow

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: Well, before looking in any book (hi Dave) my first thought was Sprague's Pipit because the bird looks kind of short-tailed for a Savannah Sparrow to me. I checked, and the lack of bright white wingbars rules that out. : After cheating and (briefly) checking a couple books, I think it's probably an ammodramus, likely Baird's (a species I have zero experience with). Hopefully others can support or knock that down better than I can, but clues I'm looking at that may or may not be worth something are - : - the obvious wide, solid unstreaked buff area on the central hind-crown, perhaps the back of the solid buff-ish crown stripe of Baird's that widens at the rear(?) : - the overall very pale, finely dark-streaked look to the crown and nape : - the apparently disconnected wide solid dark post-ocular spot visible on the far rear of the face on the left : - the funky rufous subterminal areas on the tips of the greater coverts : - the (apparently) very solid streaking on the sides of the upper breast (on the right) with little or no streaking visible on the sides and flanks : - the sort of wedge shape (and/or color pattern) to the tertials : The outer rects might look sort of bright white for Baird's, but we've been through that before with photo lighting. : Fun bird! : Cheers, : Phil

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