Grasshopper sparrow
Characteristic residents of grassy fields, grasshopper sparrows are sometimes hard to see, but their buzzing high-pitched insect-like song often reveals their presence. The one above paused briefly on a dry weed at the Santa Rosa Plateau, near Temecula, California. Both pictures (which are heavily cropped, since the bird never let me get very close) show the species' flat head and buffy breast; in the right photo, the pale central crown stripe is also visible. The bird below, on the barbed-wire fence (another commonly favored perch) was near Manhattan, Kansas.
Images copyright by Mark A. Chappell
