Date: 6/24/25 9:23 am From: FlyAway Birding <flyawaybirding...> Subject: Re: [VTBIRD] A bird song question
I once tracked down what sounded exactly like a Clay-colored Sparrow in
Middlesex, VT, and it turned out to be a Chipping Sparrow! They're close
relatives and, according to Birds of the World (Cornell Lab of
Ornithology), there "is 1 record of a Chipping Sparrow, or a
morphologically similar hybrid, singing song of Clay-colored Sparrow at
Toronto, ON; not clear if this was result of learning or of hybridization".
I wish I had gotten a recording of that Chipping Sparrow in Middlesex!
Chip Darmstadt
FlyAway Birding
On Mon, Jun 23, 2025 at 8:03 PM Martha & Bill McClintock <
<mbmcclintock...> wrote:
> I was kayaking at Green River Reservoir today. At one point, I heard a
> bird song that I did not recognize. I turned on Merlin and it immediately
> came back with Clay Colored Sparrow. My husband's phone did the same.
> The habitat makes the CCSP seem unlikely to me so I am wondering, are there
> any other birds that sound similar? Unfortunately, the banks of the
> reservoir did not allow me to get out in an attempt to see the bird so all
> I have is Merlin.
>
> Don't worry, I will not eBird the CCSP as I use Merlin as
> confirmation rather than primary identifier. Just wondering if there is a
> bird that sounds similar that would be more likely.
>
> Thanks, Martha McClintock
> (usually birding in) Westford
>
