Hello Birders,

Major kudos to Doug Overacker, Larry Jeanblanc, and Julie Karlson. The bird shown in the photos at http://www.clarkcountyohioaudubon.org/ is definitely a Cassin's Sparrow. Overall proportions, bill shape, head shape, face pattern, and what shows of the pattern of the flanks and upperparts are all perfect and diagnostic for this species. Congratulations to the finders for a very fine piece of perceptive and expert fieldwork! Finding and identifying the bird in the first place was impressive enough in itself, but going back and getting diagnostic documentation, well, that raises it to a higher level. Cassin's Sparrow is known to wander, but finding a stray is considerably harder than finding a needle in a haystack, so this is a spectacular record for Ohio. Well done!

Kenn Kaufman
Editor, Kaufman Field Guides series
http://www.kaufmanfieldguides.com/
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