Song Sparrow Shenanigans

When I got up it was still partly clear, but the wind was picking up and there were dark clouds moving in. Later in the day there was some rain, but not as much as I would have expected, given the forecast and heavy clouds.

I walked by the corner of the northwest of Crescent Harbor a couple of times this morning and spent a few minutes each time watching Song Sparrow interactions. The first time two were up near the sidewalk, and it was sort of hard to tell what they were doing. One was sort of singing, but not a full loud song, while the other mostly didn’t seem to be singing. It was hard to be sure though, as they both tended to keep their bills mostly closed (especially the second one). It almost seemed like they might have been doing a little eating while they were there, but then there was some flapping about and a little bit of combat(?) as they flew up and down breast to breast. It seemed like a somewhat confrontational interaction, though not exceptionally aggressive (perhaps that’s just my impression as a much larger animal, and for Song Sparrows I suppose it could have been very aggressive). They flew between the rocks and the dock and back again. At one point one of them was actually sort of hovering in flight over the other (not a typical Song Sparrow flight pattern in my observation).

When I came by a bit later in the morning, I noticed a third bird. I am guessing this one was a female, as the other two were doing most of the interaction and she(?) was mostly going about her business while mostly seeming to ignore the other two. From time to time one of those two would come and seem to sing to her and then perhaps chase after the other one.

It was sort of hard to describe all that was going on with the birds. Had it not been so windy, I probably would have tried to photograph and/or get some video of what was going on, but it would have been a challenge to capture since they were moving around quite a bit.

Leave a Reply