{"id":57471,"date":"2019-04-26T05:36:16","date_gmt":"2019-04-26T11:36:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/?p=57471"},"modified":"2026-04-03T10:02:26","modified_gmt":"2026-04-03T15:02:26","slug":"how-i-know-that-this-a-vesper-sparrow","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2019\/04\/26\/how-i-know-that-this-a-vesper-sparrow\/","title":{"rendered":"How I Know That This A Vesper Sparrow"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Vesper Sparrow perched on sagebrush – Nikon D500, f7.1, 1\/2000, ISO 500, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light<\/span><\/p>\n

Click and pull the white arrow to the left to reveal some of the ID features I use to determine that this is a Vesper Sparrow.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>

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I paid a heavy price to get this Vesper Sparrow photo because despite warnings from the park and my last buggy trip to the Island I went to Antelope Island yesterday morning and even with wearing netting over my hair and scalp and a hat on top of it the biting gnats got to me any way. They tore me up.\u00a0 I now have big bumps on my scalp from the nasty, swarming, blood-sucking gnats. I will not be going back to the island until those vile biting gnats are gone.<\/p>\n

I was trying to locate and photograph the Lark Sparrows that have returned to Antelope Island and although I saw a few I wasn’t able to obtain any decent, high quality images of them but I did have another sparrow pop up into view long enough to take some nice photos of it.<\/p>\n

I saw two sparrows fluttering around a sagebrush and when this Vesper Sparrow popped up I was ready to take a nice series of it perched on top of the sage. I knew immediately that is was a Vesper Sparrow but I know that not everyone can ID these LBJ (little brown jobs) and after being asked what makes it a Vesper Sparrow I decided to create a graphic with my image to point out some of the key ID features I look for when I identify them.<\/p>\n