Every Hobby Has Its Jargon, & Bird Watching is No Exception.
When bird watching, it’s not uncommon to see a smaller bird fly by, probably brown in colour, and due to its speed, not easily identifiable. Birders often refer to these frustrations as “LBB’s” or “Little Brown Birds”. With nearly two dozen kinds of sparrows that Alberta their home at certain times of the year, taking a closer look at those “LBB’s”, once they land that is, can reveal to the birder key distinguishing features for each of the different types of sparrows.
Introduced to North America in 1751, The First Sparrow That You May See is The House Sparrow.
When you are in urban parking lots, you may see an LBB hopping on the grills of vehicles looking for dead insects to eat. At fast food businesses, house sparrows often hop around looking for crumbs under vehicles. It’s rare to find the house sparrow alone, as it is a highly social bird. Flocks of twenty, thirty or more may sweep noisily into a group of trees or on a fence line before descending to the ground to search for food.
The male house sparrow, although small in size, only 6 inches or so, has a large head, broad neck and a medium length stout black bill. He is also a handsome bird, having a black lore (the space between the eye and bill), chin and bib that contrast with its grayish cheeks and undercarriage. Of note is the distinguishing dark grey crown, nicely surrounded with a rich brown hue that extends to the nape and back. The wings are streaked with rich browns and buff, they also have a single white upper wing-bar. The female house sparrow is short changed having a colour scheme consisting of a series of shades of lighter brown and a pale bill.
Activities somewhat unique to house sparrows include bathing in street side puddles or taking dust baths on open ground. Although a social bird, a pecking order does exist within a flock of house sparrows. The males with the largest back bibs will dominate other males. When aggravated, the house sparrow gets its body horizontal, spreads and rolls its wings, all the while holding its tail straight up while its chest feathers are fluffed out and beaks are open as well to portray dominance. Males will dominate females during the fall and winter, while females rule the roost in both spring and summer.
As the majority of a house sparrow’s diet consists of seeds and some seasonally available insects, they are drawn to backyard bird feeders, allowing you to hear the loud chatter of the flock, and to witness the roles each bird has in that flock of songbirds. If you are out birding and see that “LBB”, take a closer look and discover the name of a unique kind of sparrow.
– Don Cassidy
