Black-throated Sparrow (#11)

A Black-throated Sparrow giving me a wary look; Siphon Draw Trail, Lost Dutchman State Park, AZ; 12-26-08.

My 11th and last in my blog series of Sparrows is the Black-throated Sparrow, which I think has one of the most distinctive looks of all the Sparrow species. The first time I saw a Black-throated Sparrow (Above) was in December of 2008. Again, like most of my pics of Sparrows before this year, I didn’t know it was a sparrow until after I looked up what kind of bird was on my memory stick.  This might have given me an unconscious notion that not all sparrows are uninteresting little brown birds. Ach! Those tricky sparrows!

I saw a few more the very next winter we visited Arizona. They like an arid brushy scrub as their chief habitat which in winter is mostly in Arizona, Texas, New Mexico and Mexico. In summers they will migrate further north to California, Utah, Nevada, and even up to the high desert of Eastern Oregon. I have only seen them Arizona and it seems in all the pictures I have of Black-throats, they always look like bandits up to no good with their black mask hiding part of their eyes (Below) which gives them a sort of a menacing look - luckily they are small.

Another Black-throated Sparrow keeping an eye on me; Butcher Jones Trail, Saguaro Lake, AZ; 12-29-09.

This photo of a Black-throated Sparrow (McDowell Mountain Regional Park, Phoenix, AZ; 12-30-09) was actually a lucky accident. I was focusing on a Cactus Wren which was in the same bush just above it and didn't even know he was there until after I downloaded my photos on the computer and looked at my pics.


Below is the original photo of the Cactus Wren and the Black-throated Sparrow together.

Cool! Is this known as one bird photo in hand is as good as two birds in a bush?