Wing Island Bird Banding Station

This Clay-colored Sparrow was a special bird to find in our nets! More numerous in central North America, these birds occasionally make their way along the Atlantic coastline during fall migration before heading to Mexico. They are closely related to the Chipping Sparrow and can look very similar in their first winter plumage. The Clay-colored Sparrow has a more sharply defined malar stripe, whereas the eyeline in the Chipping Sparrow continues to the bill, but does not in the Clay-colored