{"id":48544,"date":"2017-09-21T05:50:56","date_gmt":"2017-09-21T11:50:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/?p=48544"},"modified":"2024-07-13T02:43:35","modified_gmt":"2024-07-13T07:43:35","slug":"adult-and-immature-song-sparrows","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2017\/09\/21\/adult-and-immature-song-sparrows\/","title":{"rendered":"Adult and Immature Song Sparrows"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"AdultAdult Song Sparrow at Bear River MBR – Nikon D500, f7.1, 1\/640, ISO 640, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light<\/span><\/p>\n

Yesterday morning I was able to photograph and adult Song Sparrow eating while perched at Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge<\/span><\/a> early in the morning.\u00a0 I was photographing Marsh Wrens when I saw this sparrow pop up from the rushes to land on the phragmites in nice light close by and couldn’t resist taking photos of it.<\/p>\n

A little while later I also saw an immature Song Sparrow out in the open but unfortunately I didn’t have great, or even decent, light on it because of the angle of the sunlight and the images turned out poorly. At the time I thought it would be nice to have an image of the immature bird to show a comparison between the two but that was not to be.<\/p>\n

\"MessyMessy immature Song Sparrow – Nikon D500, f7.1, 1\/500, ISO 320, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light<\/span><\/p>\n

Then I remembered the messy, molting immature Song Sparrow I photographed at the end of July in Summit, County Utah and thought I would add a photo of it for comparison. This immature bird is very messy in appearance though whereas the young sparrow I saw yesterday didn’t look quite this disheveled. If you look at the face of this immature sparrow you can make out some of the markings that are also on the face of the adult, the streaking on the breast and the same overall coloring.<\/p>\n

Neither of these Song Sparrows were singing when I photographed them, this species is well named in my opinion because I love to hear their melodious songs in the marshes,\u00a0desert scrub, sagebrush steppes, grasslands, prairies, forest edges, pinyon pine forests, aspen forests, and mountainous riparian areas here in Utah, Idaho and Montana.<\/p>\n

They have such lovely songs, in fact a group of Song Sparrows can be called a \u201cchoir\u201d or \u201cchorus\u201d of sparrows. I can hear<\/span><\/a> why.<\/p>\n

Life is<\/em> good.<\/p>\n

Mia<\/p>\n

Click here<\/span><\/a> to see more of my Song Sparrow photos plus facts and information about this species.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Yesterday morning I was able to photograph and adult Song Sparrow eating while perched at Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge early in the morning.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":130537,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[124,27,1148,204,1731,26,773],"tags":[4004,3940,4286,4067,4094,4202,6022,2313,4104,4059,4023,855,4195,4095],"class_list":["post-48544","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-bear-river-migratory-bird-refuge","category-avian","category-box-elder-county-utah","category-song-sparrows","category-summit-county-utah","category-utah","category-wasatch-mountains","tag-adult","tag-canyon","tag-eating","tag-immature","tag-marsh","tag-melospiza-melodia","tag-messy","tag-molting","tag-perched","tag-phragmites","tag-song-sparrow","tag-sparrow","tag-sparrows","tag-wetlands"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/song-sparrow-adult-bear-river-mia-mcpherson-6020.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p11Mom-cCY","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":66310,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2020\/03\/07\/song-sparrow-singing-on-the-marsh-at-bear-river-mbr\/","url_meta":{"origin":48544,"position":0},"title":"Song Sparrow Singing On The Marsh At Bear River MBR","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"March 7, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"I had nice morning light and angled my Jeep so the distant, snowy Promontory Mountains were in the background when I photographed this Song Sparrow singing.","rel":"","context":"In "Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge"","block_context":{"text":"Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/locations\/utah\/bear-river-migratory-bird-refuge\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Song Sparrow singing on the marsh, Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge, Box Elder County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/song-sparrow-snowy-mountains-mia-mcpherson-6270.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/song-sparrow-snowy-mountains-mia-mcpherson-6270.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 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Refuge","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/locations\/utah\/bear-river-migratory-bird-refuge\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Late winter Savannah Sparrow perched on a fence, Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge, Box Elder County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/savannah-sparrow-late-winter-mia-mcpherson-1717.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/savannah-sparrow-late-winter-mia-mcpherson-1717.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/savannah-sparrow-late-winter-mia-mcpherson-1717.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/savannah-sparrow-late-winter-mia-mcpherson-1717.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 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Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/swamp-sparrow-bear-river-mbr-mia-mcpherson-3296.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/swamp-sparrow-bear-river-mbr-mia-mcpherson-3296.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/swamp-sparrow-bear-river-mbr-mia-mcpherson-3296.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/swamp-sparrow-bear-river-mbr-mia-mcpherson-3296.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":61555,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2019\/12\/05\/song-sparrows-in-the-marsh-of-farmington-bay\/","url_meta":{"origin":48544,"position":3},"title":"Song Sparrows In The Marsh Of Farmington Bay","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"December 5, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"I probably see Song Sparrows more often and in more habitats than any other sparrow species here in Utah.\u00a0 I am delighted by that.","rel":"","context":"In "Birds"","block_context":{"text":"Birds","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/avian\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Alert adult Song Sparrow, Farmington Bay WMA, Davis County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/song-sparrow-golden-light-mia-mcpherson-1577.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/song-sparrow-golden-light-mia-mcpherson-1577.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/song-sparrow-golden-light-mia-mcpherson-1577.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, 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MBR","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"April 18, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"I've been hearing more Savannah Sparrows than usual at Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge this spring. I hope that means their numbers are increasing.","rel":"","context":"In "Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge"","block_context":{"text":"Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/locations\/utah\/bear-river-migratory-bird-refuge\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Savannah Sparrow perched in the marsh at Bear River MBR, Box Elder County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/savannah-sparrow-adult-marsh-mia-mcpherson-2823.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/savannah-sparrow-adult-marsh-mia-mcpherson-2823.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/savannah-sparrow-adult-marsh-mia-mcpherson-2823.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/savannah-sparrow-adult-marsh-mia-mcpherson-2823.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48544","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=48544"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48544\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/130537"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=48544"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=48544"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=48544"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}