[EBB Sightings] RE:SOSP yard bird

Greetings Debbie.

I assume you are keeping a YardList.  You may have more (or less) sparrows 
than you think.  Remember, House Sparrow is a sparrow by common  (vernacular) 
name alone, thus it goes at the end of our local phylogenetic lists; it is a 
weaver finch, members of the Old World Sparrows (Family Passeridae); we (I) grew 
up calling it English Sparrow. They're supposed to have been introduced from 
Britain; either 1850, Central Park, New York, or 1851, Brooklyn, New York - 
ostensibly to control insect pests. Other birds you can count as sparrows (Family 
Emberizidae) include your towhee(s), junco(s), and someday, Fox Sparrow, and 
on some exceptionally good year, Snow Bunting.

I've only had one Lincoln's Sparrow here since keeping records in 1991. 
Howard Cogswell once banded a Clay-colored Sparrow in his nearby yard (East Avenue, 
Hayward).  This year we only had a brief, one-day stop by White-throated 
Sparrow, but we've had 2-3 Fox Sparrows, with one still here.  My Song Sparrow is 
singing almost incessantly in the AM.

Best Regards and Good Birding!
Phil

You said (3/12/2007 12:31:33 PM Pacific Standard Time)  

>This is another first. I thought I had been hearing a.
>Song Sparrow somewhere close to the house (Hayward,
>about a driving mile from Don Castro), but I was half
>wondering if it was a Lesser Goldfinch pretending to
>be one. 

>Today it visited the pile of seed I had in a dish in
>the back yard!

>The only Sparrows I've had in the past are both
>-crowned and a few House, and once, a Lincoln's.

>Debbi Brusco
>Hayward

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