Monday, November 12, 2018

November's Birds

I've downloaded The Little Stitcher's November bird - a Titmouse.
This is a fairly common bird in the eastern United States, but not one we see in Oregon.  I got to see several during my stay in Michigan in 2017.  I'm looking forward to begin to stitch away...

Here are some of the birds frequenting my backyard on cold frosty mornings. 

More and more Oregon Juncos are hanging out.

I have lots of Black-capped Chickadees too.

The most unusual bird at the moment is this tan version of a White-throated Sparrow. 

Instead of white stripes on its head, the stripes are tan.

It does have the distinctive yellow patches in front of the eyes and the white throat.

For comparison, here's the white-striped version of the same bird.
According to an ornithologist I know, the tan-version birds are dominate.  So tan males mate with white-striped females.  And tan females mate with white-striped males.  The babies of either pairing can be tan or white-striped. 

3 comments:

Robin in Virginia said...

I look forward to seeing your bird stitch appear on your fabric, Beth. Interesting tidbit about the tan-striped and the white-striped sparrows.

Margaret said...

Love these tiny birds! So interesting about the coloring and mating and all.

Barb said...

In all the other places we lived, we had the tufted titmouse. I miss that cute little bird out here. Very interesting information about those lovely sparrows!