If you're a birder, you'll know what a life list is. It's basically a list of all the bird species one has observed and positively ID'd in one's lifetime. This blog is a record of my "critter" life list (mostly of birds), including photos I've taken over the years, some of the actual lifer if I was lucky enough to get the shot. Don't expect National Geographic quality stuff here, just the work of an amateur photog who loves to trudge out into nature.

Saturday, October 3, 2015

Belding's Savannah Sparrow (Passerculus sandwichensis beldingi)

Belding's Sparrow is a subspecies of Savannah Sparrow that lives exclusively in the coastal salt marshes of Southern California through Baja California, Mexico. In 2002, when I saw my first Belding's at the Bolsa Chica Ecological Reserve in Huntington Beach, they were on the Federally endangered list. I believe they still are, but their populations have been slowly increasing due to the revitalization of some of their native pickleweed salt marsh habitat (e.g., the Ballona wetlands in Los Angeles). 
4/13/02 Upper Newport Bay Ecological Reserve, Orange County, CA

LIFE LIST NOTES:

COMMON NAME: Belding's Savannah Sparrow

SPECIES: Passerculus sandwichensis beldingi

LIFE LIST DATE: 3/16/2002

COUNT: 3

LOCATION: Bolsa Chica Ecological Reserve, Huntington Beach, Orange County, CA

From Kaufman Focus Guide: Birds of North America:

IDENTIFYING MARKS & BEHAVIOR: A streaky little sparrow that sits in the open. Heavily streaked on chest, strong face pattern. Often shows yellow in front of eye. Belding's form is darker/blackish. 

VOICE: Short notes before and after trill, sip sip sip sreeeeeeee, sip. Call note sharp ssip.
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