Fox Sparrow

Finally a day without rain—8 November 2021! Erika and I celebrated with a morning’s stroll in the Billy Frank Jr National Wildlife Refuge. A Fox Sparrow greeted us. Fox Sparrows are relatively uncommon birds at our backyard feeders, but they are secretive and we seldom see them elsewhere. The dark Fox Sparrows in the Pacific Northwest look quite different from Eastern birds. They look like different species, and further genetic studies may prove that what we call Fox Sparrows are actually three or four distinct species. Birders new to the West often have trouble separating Fox from Song sparrows, Song Sparrows here are also very dark birds which are almost the same size but which usually show more of a facial pattern. Song Sparrows, however, sport unicolored, dark bills.