Locality: South Jetty of the Columbia River, Clatsop Co., OR
Date: Oct 18,2004
Reporting observers address: Mike Patterson
1338 Kensington Av
Astoria, OR 97103
Optical equipment: 8x40 Bushnell Binoculars
Distance from bird: about 10m
Duration of observation: less than a minute
Habitat: low dune/salicornia.
Behavior: The bird stuck its head up out of the grass as I walked the grass/salicornia margin. I got very good looks at its upper half before it finally flushed and flew up and around behind me.
Description:
Overall: Savannah Sparrow sized (clearly smaller than a Lapland Longspur)
Head: very plain buffy-tan face with a dark, triangular mark at the back of the
cheek. Crown finely streaked brown. Bill small looking.
Breast: breast ground color buffy-tan with broad, brown streaking.
Back: Brown with darker brown streaking
Tail: white outer tail feathers, but bird did not spread tail so that pattern could be
seen.
The bird was silent.
Similar species: The plain face and white outer tail feathers should eliminate Savannah Sparrow. Other sparrow species with white in the outer tail should also have highly marked faces. Combination of small size, plain face and details of the breast should eliminate Lapland Longspur (and other rarer longspurs). Snow Bunting would be much larger and show white in the wings as well as the tail.
Experience: I have now seen 8 or 9 Chestnut-collared Longspurs in Clatsop Co. as well as 100's of Lapland Longspurs.
