A couple of days ago, we were birding along some township roads in Carroll Co. 
and found a sparrow that has us puzzled.  


It was sitting in a shrub along the road in a field, shrub habitat.  The 1st 
thing I noticed was the pink bill & my immediate thought was field sparrow.  I 
looked at the legs, they were also pinkish.  I also thought the head was rusty 
colored but could not be certain of that.  That was all I had time to take note 
of before a passing car flushed it further into the brush.  Up to that second, I 
was thinking field sparrow but as it flushed the most notable marking was very 
bright & definite white outer tail feathers and we both immediately said "Vesper 
Sparrow!" simultaneously.  But we have never seen a Vesper in this part of the 
state, though we have really looked for one.

Luckily, it did come back out for 1 more quick look.  Tim said he saw an eye 
ring and 2 light wing bars.  I noticed a clear breast.  Then it flushed again & 
again the white outer tail feathers really stood out..  I have looked at several 
references for field sparrow and none of them say anything about white tail 
feathers.  And these tail feathers were so noticible that they would definitely 
be considered a field mark; a field mark that Petersen would have had arrows 
pointing to.  But neither can I come up with any other possible sparrow or 
sparrow-like bird.  Vesper has a streaked breast & Lark has such a distinctive 
face pattern that we would have noticed that right away.    


Does any one have any thougths on our mystery sparrow?

Laura Dornan
Stark County

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