Monday, December 19, 2011

Red Fox Sparrow

On December 18, we had a new bird for our yard list, a Red Fox Sparrow.  It appeared around 11 am for a brief time, long enough to determine that it was a Red Fox Sparrow rather than a Sooty Fox Sparrow, but then it flew off.  Fortunately, it returned in late afternoon and hung out where we had spread millet on the ground, offering Nancy a clear view to photograph it.



It breeds in the high Arctic from Alaska across to eastern Canada.  It obviously migrated this far south, but is quite unusual up here at 8000 feet, 40 miles northwest of Fort Collins, CO.