Fox SparrowNovember 2005
 



The very first fox sparrow I ever saw was back in April 2005. I saw him as a reddish bird flittering in bushes while I was walking in the game land. The advantage of a long telephoto lens is that it can blur out foreground, so I got a somewhat reasonable photo of him. It took ages to identify though.
 
Fox sparrow
   
That was it for fox sparrows and me until mid-November, when one began to show up by the feeders. He seemed to prefer the early morning or dusk, so photographing him was a challenge. Adding to that challenge was his habit (as a ground feeder) of kicking up leaves and stuff during his seed search: He was constant motion while I had to take photos at a slow speed in the dim light.
 
Fox sparrow
 
  The fox sparrow is about one and a half times the size of a house sparrow. For that matter, the fox sparrow is large enough to expect him to be something other than a sparrow.
 
Fox sparrow
 
  The fox sparrow has a strongly streaked breast and a central "heart mark." According to Peterson's, the fox sparrow gets its name from the combination of red and gray about its neck. For me, the fox sparrow deserves its name from the long red tail.

Photo note: I used a Pentax *ist D, with the SMC-A* 300mm lens and the Pentax rear converter-A 2x for the first shot and the rear converter-A 1.4x for the second two.




My Pennsylvania bird list

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