Saltmarsh Sharp-tailed Sparrow - Central Park NYC - May 2009

All photos and text copyright © Phil Jeffrey, 2009. I don't have an issue with personal use the images, but for all other uses please contact me.

Janet Wooten found a Saltmarsh Sharp-tailed Sparrow at Falconer's Hill on May 13th 2009, and I was fortunate enough to turn up shortly after she did so and get good looks and a few photographs of this bird.

As luck would have it this is the third sharp-tailed sparrow I've seen in Central Park, the previous ones being a Saltmarsh Sharp-tailed Sparrow in the Gill on 4/30/2001 and a Nelson's Sharp-tailed Sparrow in the Oven on 9/29/2002. Both of them in wetter habitats, not that the Gill bears much resemblance to a saltmarsh. For the Nelson's I wrote up a ID discussion for the differentiation between Nelson's and Saltmarsh, which were previously considered as one species.

In this particular case the ID is not too difficult - the orange triangle of supercilium and malar combined with the gray cheek contrasts rather nicely with the much paler coloration of the throat and underparts, which also show well-defined dark streaking. This is an adult Saltmarsh Sharp-tailed Sparrow and appears to be of the same race that occurs in local saltmarshes near Jamaica Bay WR.

I did not use flash on this bird, which was out of habitat and was somewhat nervous out in the open. They are often relatively skulky in typical habitat. So the first two photos are heavily backlit and strongly post-processed to get around that problem. The second two were taken when the bird was in the shade. Interesting behavioral note when the bird is perched in the fence is that the feet grip the sides of the wire fencing, much like these sort of saltmarsh species do in their native habitat, rather than perching on the horizontal part (I've seen this with Marsh Wren and Seaside Sparrow also).

Other species and subspecies show extensive orange on the throat and breast, and diffuse streaking. It compares fairly favorably with the Jake's Landing (NJ) Saltmarsh Sharp-tailed Sparrow I photographed several years back:

All text and images copyright Phil Jeffrey 2009.