One common sparrow and one not so common sparrow

[Maestro]

I'll start with the old lowly house sparrow which seemed to look better down on the Martin Refuge in Edinburg, Texas. These house sparrows also did not overwhelm the other birds as they do elsewhere. There were plenty more aggressive birds around to do that, but at least those were native species. :)





Now for the not so common sparrow; It's the olive sparrow which is very rare for the US, but locally common in the Lower Rio Grande Valley. They prefer the dense brush, are shy, and are basically a Mexican and Latin American species but they do make it up to the Valley of Texas.

This particular olive sparrow was extremely shy looking for seed to feed its fledgeling that it had. I actually saw it feeding its fledgling once. This one and its mate would bop in for a few seconds then leave. Sometimes it or its mate would get some water and quickly leave. Also, as an aside, during this first sequence of shots a Texas Indigo snake made an appearance which surprised me so that I never got a good clear shot of it. x( This was all in the early morning before 10:00am.









It wouldn't be until late in the evening almost around 7:00pm probably before I got a few more good chances with the olive sparrows. This was at another blind deeper into the refuge.







And finally two nice perches...





Enjoy.

[chitty]

1. Really nice shots!

Thanks for sharing.

[Maestro]

2. Thanks a bunch Chitty.

:hi:

[Maestro]

3. Major goof

If you look at the first photographs before the ones on the perch and the lily pads, it is clearly a different bird from the last ones. The first ones are in fact the olive sparrow. The last ones are actually a female painted bunting. The olive coloring is deeper and the beak is completely different than that of a sparrow. It is clearly a bunting beak. Oh well. I am certainly happy with a female painted bunting too. :)