Ok, I give up

What is this? I have looked for it in my books until I am blind....this is not seen in my yard, lol.rather at the local marsh here. I cannot for the life of me find it. I know its simple.( or I am!)

No one?

Beautiful shots, but no luck on the ID. I believe it is a sparrow though.

A Reed Bunting?

Song Sparrow maybe

Pacific North West morph Song Sparrow. This morph is often confused by East coast birders with the Fox Sparrow because they are use to the paler East coast population of Song Sparrows. The PNW Song Sparrows tend be very sooty to brick red unlike their central and East coast cousins. So basically the closer you get to the PNW, the Sootier the Song Sparrows.

If you were to see the chest of this bird you would notice streaking. On a Fox Sparrow, this streaking would be made up of tiny chevrons (sometimes lined up in streaks, sometimes not).

Unless you have The Sibley's Guide to Birds, more than likely the guide won't have the PNW morph of the Song Sparrow. The Sibley's Guide to Birds is the best, most comprehensive bird guide on the market. If you don't have one, get one If a bird has several morphs, the normal guides (Peterson's guides etc.) will typically show only the most common morph. Sibley's shows them all (plus hybrids). Sibley also looked at many different birds of the same species before making his paintings and averaging them together. The guides that rely on photos tend to show only what that one bird looked like, not what the average population (or sub-populations) should look like.

2n10 wrote in post #16282897
Beautiful shots, but no luck on the ID. I believe it is a sparrow though.

SAB_Click wrote in post #16282908
A Reed Bunting?

chubri777 wrote in post #16282982
Song Sparrow maybe

Now I thought Song sparrow, but the markings are not the same?This has no mottled striped chest, all pure buff, and the eyebrows and moustache looked totally different I know the Fox sparrow as they eat like crazy here in the yard. May have to go back and try to capture this one again.....closer...

Bird, I believe you, just the lack of markings on the chest confuse me.

Thank you all for replying!

This is the song sparrow I got( horrid wash on the sky..)

BirdBoy wrote in post #16283041
Pacific North West morph Song Sparrow.
...............
Unless you have The Sibley's Guide to Birds, more than likely the guide won't have the PNW morph of the Song Sparrow. The Sibley's Guide to Birds is the best, most comprehensive bird guide on the market. If you don't have one, get one I

Where would we be without you and your encyclopedic knowledge?

I do have this book... if I can pry it out of my 8yo birder son's hands..

As I said in my first post, there are many morphs of the song sparrow. The second image you posted is the stereotypical Puget Sound/BC morph of the Song Sparrow (aka PNW morph), a redish bird (often confused with red Fox Sparrows). As you travel down the West Coast into Oregon and California, the birds will start to lighten up. The first image is a morph typically scene in Oregon and Southern Washington. A sooty variety with a relatively clean to brown chest chest. As you go further East, the Song Sparrow will really lighten up. All of the PNW/Oregon Song Sparrows overlap in range, so seeing these two morphs in the same bush isn't uncommon.

If you do a google search for Song Sparrow, you can see just how many different morphs there are.

Here is a (I think) song sparrow I shot in Hillsboro OR (Jackson Bottom Wetlands), for comparison.

Flo, I hope you don't mind me posting in your thread. Let me know if it's not ok and I will change it to a link.

Now that ^ Looks like mine I posted last.

Evan, I concede to you. Just the face on it looked different than the others, but I totally get the morph thing now. Thank you so much!

well done Flo!

So the local bird people here are telling me this is a Savannah Sparrow?

Flo, here is a savannah sparrow I shot in Hillsboro as well.... savannah sparrows, at least the ones here in Oregon have the yellow streak above the eye that I am not seeing in your shot..

IMAGE LINK: http://www.flickr.com …/87114888@N07/8​898710457/

IMAGE LINK: http://www.flickr.com …/87114888@N07/8​899326128/

Exactly what I pointed out.. thank you.