We are in the single digits of days before the slicing occurs. Honestly, I am more concerned about getting everything I need done BEFORE the surgery than I am of the surgery itself. At this point I am just trying to guess at all the things that could go wrong around the house while I’m in the official “no weight” for 6 weeks period. Do I have the parts available as I know Linda prefers to stay out of certain aisles at Menards, are the things I will need moved up from the basement or down from the second floor den, when should I put the water tank on the truck as precaution if our wells go dry and how many more practice opportunities do I have on the scooter and crutches for when Linda isn’t looking (tell her and you are on my bad list hahaha!). The good news is I already have a new batch of posts from Brad so there will be plenty of material to keep you entertained when the time comes. In the meantime, going to do my best to bring you some featured feathered friends that have been sitting in my queue for a while. Let’s start with one that also has that “Guessing” theme surrounding it.
Hit the jump to learn more about this rather difficult bird to ID.
There are many birds out there that are so similar they become very difficult to differentiate without a specific angle being captured and/or an audio cue such as a Merlin App confirmation, maybe a field behavior, regional distinction or so identical you need to knock them out and check under the feathers to really be sure. We do not condone the latter, of course, but you get where I’m coming from. Over time we have learned to look for specific clues in the field to help take the mystery out. Take for instance the Eastern and Western Meadowlark. Say you are in Texas during the winter where their regions overlap. Initially we used to go with our standard “Idaknow” label and throw it in a folder marked Don’t Bother. The more time you have with them and the more reading you do, the more you learn there is a subtle difference beyond their call and start looking specifically at their mustache to see if it is all yellow (Western) or bordered by white (Eastern).
Then there is the Downy vs the Hairy Woodpeckers which are daunting at first encounter, but eventually you get a feel for the size differences (especially the relative size of the bill to the head) or the more subtle differences like the Hairy male having a split red patch or my favorite, the black spots on the outer white tail feathers of the Downy.
There are many other examples I could point to, but the main thing is, time is an important factor. Time in the field, time in the books and time beating your head in the digital darkroom. Don’t dismiss those species where it doesn’t matter how much time is put in as they are just that close – most of us here at Intrigued will still look at you funny if you try to explain how you can tell the difference between the Couch’s and Tropical Kingbirds without hearing their calls.
Today I bring you a species I definitely need more time with. My first and only encounter with the bird (or birds) in this series was in January 2024 while in Las Vegas. This was the first time we had pulled our 2-door Wrangler out there (since upgraded to a 4-door Rubicon) which gave us the ability to go up into the Desert National Wildlife Refuge past the Corn Creek Field Station. It isn’t the worst we have been on as we have now taken a trail in Sedona, but I would not recommend it unless you have a high clearance vehicle and rugged tires. As we were navigating the rocks, I noticed a small flock of birds essentially paralleling us as they moved from brush to brush. They had the shape and overall behavior of a Sparrow, but the very distinct white eye ring was captivating.
To be honest, I did not get a lot of shots before they dispersed together into the Desert. Apparently following humans in a car is fun, having it stop and a scary looking person getting out with a black bazooka pointed at it is disturbing. Some quick chimping at the back of the camera afterwards confirmed my curiosity – this was not a Sparrow I had seen before. Too much white and more elongated to be a Bushtit (ping pong balls with tails), too many browns to be Gnatcatcher, too plain to be a Sage Thrasher. Next stop, Cornell’s birding website…well, if I could, no connectivity up there – sigh.
Finally got back to civilization and started doing some researching. After comparing a multitude of options, came to the conclusion it was a Sagebrush Sparrow, wait, Bell’s Sparrow, no, Sage, oops Bell’s, hmmm Sagebrush, both?, umm, enough, let’s go with Sagebrush. My confusion is warranted. Check this tennis match from ABA per Cornell. In the 19th century this featured bird was known as the Bell’s until being split by 1910 into the Sagebrush and Bell’s. Then along comes 1`957 when they were both combined into Sage Sparrows. Confused yet? Just wait. In 2013 they were split back into Sagebrush and Bell’s. W-T-H! Now for the kicker. They look nearly identical and there is overlap in their all-year and breeding regions – which you can guess includes lower Nevada.
From what I can ascertain, the Bell’s is greyer and has less streaks on their backs. I am sure you are about to say “but Bri, they clearly have distinct vocalizations”. Checked into that theory. Here is the Cornell description for the Sagebrush songs and calls:
The Song: “[A]n abrupt series of several trills broken up by short chips, lasting about 2 seconds or less. Only males sing, and each male gives one song type which can vary by truncating the last syllables.”
The Calls: “Both sexes give a distinctive, bell-like tink contact call, and use a similar, but more forceful note as an alarm call.”
Now for the Bell’s description:
The Song: “[A]n abrupt series of several trills broken up by short chips, lasting about 2 seconds or less. Only males sing, and each male gives one song type which can vary by truncating the last syllables.”
The Calls: “Both sexes give a distinctive, bell-like tink contact call, and use a similar, but more forceful note as an alarm call.”
Since it is unlikely to free form something that identical – let’s go with copy-paste.
From all that, it would appear that in the overlapping region you are left with one being darker and having less streaking on the back. The shot’s above are browner and there is some streaking on the back (trust me for a quick bit).
Reader participation time! Wanna take a guess on what species the shot below is?
Definitely darker, little to no streaking on the back. I am personally tempted to go with the Bell’s on this one. Not confident enough to claim it on last year’s Average Year (link here), but that is my position – had I been under 300 species for that year, I would have called a zoom meeting with Ron and the rest of the Intrigued Bird Identification Department to get a ruling.
This next shot sucks, but it is the best shot I have of the back of what I consider to be the Sagebrush variety (and the specimen in the earlier shots). Note the browner tones and the ticking on the back.
Unfortunately, all the shots I was able to get of these rather secretive birds. Just enough time to give you some interesting facts on this new life list bird or birds before letting you go. They are primarily ground foragers munching on seed and insects inhabiting the sagebrush and rest of the desert flora. Sagebrush/Bell’s rely on undisturbed tracts of sage for their breeding habitat making Desert NWR a perfect location to find them. They are also habitual in their residency from year to year increasing your chances of finding them significantly. Lastly, Cornell indicates they prefer to “scurry” on the ground over taking flight to get from one patch of brush to another. Note, this was not what I witnessed on my first encounter as they seemed comfortable with flight both following alongside the vehicle and when they opted to flee my bazooka blasts.
Hope you enjoyed one of the newer additions to the life list. For the non-birders out there, hopefully, you also got a taste for how hard bird IDing can be at times.
Take care everyone, I’ll hopefully get a few more posts in before the surgery and I’ll let you know how everything is going.
Wildlife Intrigued 
It’s a sassy looking little bird. You are busy before the surgery. I hope all goes well.
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Thanks Tim! All the tasks are fortunately keeping my mind off the upcoming ordeal. You are right on with this being a sassy looking bird – pretty sure them and the Black-Throated Sparrows are the best looking in that traditionally drabby family..problem is they know it hahaha. Appreciate you coming by Tim!
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I’ve been spending money at Lowe’s on Tristan’s house. The inspection came back with some issues I needed to take care of, and while I was at it, I decided to fix some other things before we put it back on the market. I’m worn out again.
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I remember trying to sell our first house while building my current house… and somehow still in the daily grind – those were some loooong days.
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Here’s hoping all goes well. Even the little feathered friends are in your corner!
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Thank you very much for the well wishes. Going to take some adjustments to get through the early weeks of recovery, but keeping my eye on the prize so to speak knowing I’ll be able to hit the trails again once this is all past me. Appreciate you stopping in and wonderful post on Cantigny Park!
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I love the moustache-thing a lot … or the pingpong-birds more? You made me laugh a lot! Best wishes for the surgery.
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Glad you enjoyed the post Puzzlebume! I always like to make it interesting for the readers who give me their valuable time – even better when I can bring a few smiles along the way – pretty much our mission here at Intrigued ha! Thank you for the well wishes and for stopping by, definitely appreciate it.
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Fine set of photos.
Good luck, I hope all goes well!
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Thank you for the well wishes Belinda. Past surgery now and officially in the recovery phase which is going to last a loooong time (14 weeks) so hoping I can finally attack my backlog of photos. Take care and thanks for dropping in.
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I can’t believe that copy-paste trick. That’s just frustrating. The more I puzzle through bird ID’s, the more amazed I am at the folks that actually understand all the tiny differences. I looked up the Bell’s and the Sagebrush in my Sibley’s 2nd Edition. He thoughtfully placed them on the same page. Comparing those images, the Sage seems to have much more noticable white eye spots and frowny line. The Sage also seems to have a very narrow white border along and across the tail feathers. That shows up well in your blurry photo (always good to keep them, you never know when they will reveal something important). It also shows in the 2nd photo, where he’s glancing away from us.
I’m going through something similar right now with a Olive-sided Flycatcher vs Eastern/Western Wood Peewee. Fun!
Be sweet to all your caregivers, and especially Linda. Keep some old telephone books around for ripping in half if the urge strikes. You are ready to do the work, just need to give your aging <I did not say that> body time to heal.
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Those Flycatchers can be a pain in the ass. Ron got me a series of books from Cin-Ty Lee that are an excellent set of reference books to help distinguish between those difficult ones. Can’t remember the name of them right now .. unfortunately in another room which, trust me, is about a MILE away in my current condition. I’ll send you those titles when I get a chance. Linda is keeping a strict eye on me and keeps reminding me the goal is to be back on the trails when this is all over – that is edited and cleaned of course as she has a way with words when she lays down the law. On the lighter side, I’ve watched a year’s worth of YouTube videos already and learning all kinds of things!
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Oh no, not the rabbit hole of unforgetable cat videos! Say it ain’t so!
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It is so – fortunately, it is mostly endless birding and haunt prop building – admittedly learning a lot on the birding front…but that is just making me want to be out in the field even more! Of course there are those epic fails and bands that “almost lost it all videos” thrown in the mix.
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Nice post, Brian. Sending you prayers for the surgery! ☀️
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Thank you Lisa, appreciate the well wishes! I am out of surgery now (last week) and yesterday just got the first bandages off – now into an air cast. These six weeks of no weight at all on the ankle is going to test my mettle for sure!!! Take care and again, big thanks for the support.
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Glad to hear the surgery is behind you! Wishing you a quick recovery! ☀️
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Thank you Lisa, as they say the easy part of the process is behind me with the actual surgery part, now the hard work begins to get me off my feet … well, after 5 weeks as I’m in the no weight phase…..sigh, this is going to be mentally tough! Appreciate the well wished Lisa, take care.
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Hello Brian,
What a lovely bird and I see we share the challenges of identifying certain birds – another global phenomenon. I imagine what they must be thinking when they observe these 2-legged creatures staring at them…☺️ Thinking of you and best wishes for the surgery.
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Greetings T Ibara! I have definitely learned we are not alone in our struggles to get all the birds identified – especially when some of the differences are so minimal you basically have one in each hand to tell them apart. I am pretty sure they are mostly thinking one thing when we intrude on their daily routines – “Don’t just stand there, go fill up your feeders and bring me a box of bugs while you are at it” – I could be wrong hehehe. Appreciate the well wishes. Past the surgery itself now and now on the loooong road to recovery. Fortunately, the carrot at the end of the stick is sufficient to keep me going – running is a big part of my life and missing it already! Take care and have a great rest of your week (oh and apologies for the delay in response)
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More understated yet subtly elegant sparrows, Brian!
I’m no help with the ID. I have seen Sagebrush Sparrows, but only knew this because of where I saw them–Bell’s were not supposed to occur there. If two bird species are this difficult to tell apart, it’s my humble opinion that they should be lumped together–again.
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I am with you Tanaja – distinctions this subtle do not bring any benefit, especially if you are simply going to scratch your head afterwards trying to figure out what you just saw – the non-overlapping regions help a lot, but find yourself in the middle of the Venn diagram and you might as well roll the dice. Sam did give some interesting insights into possible field differentiators above, which I definitely want to try out the next time I am in the field. Hope all is going well out there!
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It would be helpful to see the two different species next to one another for direct comparison!
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Definitely agree, especially with species that are this darn close. I’ve actually been considering making a field guide for our Intrigued staff to help them distinguish the key features of similar species out in the field – how to tell a Western from an Eastern Meadowlark, a Downy from a Hairy WP, a juvi BC from a Juvi YC Night Heron, Greater Scaup from a Lesser, Greater from Lesser Yellowlegs etc. Guess I can’t use the old excuse I don’t have time in my current state ha. Take care Tanja and have a great rest of your week.
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Maybe one of these days you will get to check that item off your to-do list.
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We shall see, maybe I can put it after all the LEGO builds already sitting in my “for a rainy day” pile.
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