Sunday, May 12, 2013

LBB's: Little Brown Birds

Grasshopper Sparrow perched on a dry mullein stalk
 
As a person whose main interest in birds is as a photographic subject, identifying some of my captures can be frustrating to say the least.  This is particularly true with what I have begun calling LBB's, my acronym for little brown birds.

 

Grasshopper Sparrow singing
 
The birds posted here fell into that category and remained there until my niece Amy visited Saturday while she and her husband participated in the annual Pa Migration Count.  Reviewing my LBB photos with her, she was able to give each a positive identification. 


Savannah Sparrow
 
I'm sure that as the nesting season progresses I will capture more LBB's and will require help putting a positive identification on them.  However that is just one of the things that makes wildlife photography so interesting, learning about the wild creatures who live around us.
 
 

5 comments:

ASHE said...

This morning we walked over towards where you found the grasshopper sparrows. I have some pics of one now, too!

It was good to see you, happy to help with the IDs :)

Ruth Hiebert said...

These LBB should all come with a small name tag.Sure would make my life easier. Great pictures and I'm glad you had help with the ID.

Arija said...

What a great asset a family member can be! Another blogger calls these kink s of birds as LBJ's, little brown jobs.
They do take a lot of time rooting around in bird books and on the net and being frustrated out of one's mind.
I was going to be less than helpful and saying they are all sparrows but where you are, with so many different ones that won't do at all. anyway, you know they are sparrows.
Now if you were in Australia, it would be easy as pie, we only have one sparrow that I know of and that was imported from Europe. Maybe it was a good thing although they increases to plague proportions in Western Australia, in Europe they have decreases in numbers. Who knows where the balance lies . . .

Coy Hill said...

Arija, The LBJ term must be a birder thing. When I mentioned my LBB problem to my niece she noted that she had heard other birders refer to them a LBJ's.

Unknown said...

Thanks.