White-throated Sparrow

Here is a bird you won’t find most birders stalking with their telephotos: the common, albeit hard-to-spot, white-throated sparrow. To many people, including myself, it is difficult to differentiate one species of sparrow from another, especially at a distance. Once you zoom in on him though, this little ball of energy is easy to identify. Just like the red-bellied woodpecker, whose red belly is all but impossible to distinguish from a distance, the white throat of the white-throated sparrow is sort of a “white” herring (if you’ll pardon the pun) when it comes to identifying him. In these photos, his white throat is evident, but even more flashy is the bold streak of yellow he has on his eyebrow (its “supraloral” feathers). This is a much easier identification mark than his white throat.