chipping sparrow

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By Learning to Feed Itself

The little leucistic chipping sparrow is getting very good at finding food! John Gerwin ornithologist at the NC Museum of Natural Science answered a couple of questions about this leucistic bird for me. I was concerned that maybe it was a hybrid: it is not, it is all chipping sparrow. The first item that told John this was a chipping sparrow was the shape of its bill! Just thought I’d pass that along to all of y’all as we learn together.

leucistic immature chipping sparrow

By 2nd Day with Leucistic Chipping Sparrow

Here is a much better set of photos of the leucistic chipping sparrow at Jordan Lake. I put the set out yesterday in a hurry because sometimes these oddly colored babies don’t have a long life … I wanted everybody to have a chance, if they could, to go and see it. The youngster was still there this morning so here is a brand new photo set. Hope y’all enjoy them.

portrait
parent feeding the youngster
feeding the youngster
feeding the youngster
parent looking for food
have they both spotted a bug?

By RARE Bird at Jordan Lake

Jordan Lake Visitor Assistance Center at the dam has a RARE bird. The light colored chipping sparrow fledgling is showing a leucistic pattern. Leucistic = white. Compare the youngster’s white areas to its parent’s dark plumage. This kind of plumage color abnormality occurs about 1 in 30,000 birds. I hope you can go see this cutie. Thanks Army Corps CESAW Jon Bannerman for the original sighting!

leucistic chipping sparrow

By Disgruntled Chipping Sparrow

Jordan Lake. Dawn this morning was nicely cool and crisp… at least to me! However, this immature chipping sparrow was definitely not happy about the drop in temperature. Most birds have a body temperature of 105 to 109°F. So this morning when the air temperature was 67°F this little bird fluffed up to trap its own body heat because it was actually feeling cold.