Spring is a season of change and new visitors. We see old favorites returning, maybe a new visitor to the yard that we’ve been hoping of seeing, and then we see something that isn’t in any of the books….a LBB. LBB’s are the little brown jobs that defy identification in our favorite bird book. They might sort of look like our regular visitors, but in a different color. Excitement builds as you look further into the books…maybe this is an exotic visitor from Asia, blown off course and completely out of its normal range! What if it’s a completely new species? Or a hybrid that’s never been seen before? Oh the excitement! What is it?
This is when I fall back on the old adage ‘if it walks like a duck’….etc etc. In other words, if that little LBB is hanging around the Junco’s, eating off the ground…maybe even begging for food from a Junco, it’s most likely a fledgling Junco. That’s because most of the fledglings of our favorite backyard visitors don’t look like Mom & Dad when they leave the nest. Striped brown plumage is handy to be wearing if you are just learning to navigate the world on your own. It’s a good thing to be more camouflaged before you know all the safe hiding spots.
The most common culprits in our yard in this season are Sparrows (all of them -lol), Junco’s, Towhees, Starlings, and Robins. Of course there are others, but these are the most common. You might notice the beginning hints of adult plumage, maybe its the white outer tail feather of an adult Junco peaking out on the tail of that LBB, or the red of a Robn’s breast that is starting to peak thru the fledgling feathers, or the hint of a different color on the top of a fledgling white crowned sparrow. What ever you see, LBB’s can be challenging to identify for even seasoned bird watchers.
Now…just to add to the fun, many adult sparrows can fall into to the classification of a LBB! White Crowned Sparrows, Song Sparrows, Golden-crowned Sparrows, and so on are just a few of the small brownish birds that we might find in our back yards. And to add more spice to the mix, many of our local birds might have a regional variation to their plumage. In the Pacific Northwest, Song Sparrows and Fox Sparrows look different from their eastern relatives.
But don’t despair….fledglings will quickly gain their adult plumage and we will all go back to asking what adult LBB is that?
Happy Birding!
