Chipping Sparrow

Description:

Quite small; Ashy grey underneath, brown on top with a long dark band running from beak, through eye and back down head and not actually connected to the brown coloring on the body. My impression at the time was that it was a wren but when I looked it up, the wren that most closely matched was Bewick's but those are apparently not really found in this area any more. Most of what was around were Carolina Wrens. this little dude has a stumpier look -smaller, proportionally shorter beak, shorter tail (not seen here, unfortunately) - and the colors are all greyer.

Habitat:

Spotted in a large suburban yard with several mature trees and brush. This is first small bird I've seen for a couple of weeks (since 3 juvenile cooper's hawks moved in). I've seen a couple more foraging since.

Notes:

This small (young?) bird was poking around foraging in the grass. While it did not let me approach it, of course, it did not seem to be especially skittish around me. It was pretty active, though, popping around quite a lot which made getting a proper picture rather difficult. Yet another reason to keep m'grass shorter I guess :)