Egg Identification - UPDATE

Well we've done it! We've identified the mystery egg attached below. We being a combination of Silvia at Casa In Costruzione, http://www.enaturallist.org/ and I. I mentioned in my original Egg Identification post, "There's a lollipop in it for you..." for the person who helped figure out what kind of egg this was - well Silvia I owe you a lollipop and I'm thinking a chocolate Tootsie Pop would be in order here.

It belongs to the Chipping Sparrow - Spizella passerina. Otherwise known as the "Hairbird" for it's habit of lining its nest with hair. Formerly, it utilized horsehair, but with the decline in the use of horses it takes any hair available and will even pluck strands from the coat of a sleeping dog - ouch!



Originally inhabitants of natural clearings and brushy forest borders, these sparrows are now found in gardens and suburban areas and have become familiar songbirds. During most of the year they feed on the ground, but in the breeding season males always sing from an elevated perch. Their food consists mainly of seeds, but in summer the adults and the young feed on insects.

Description 5-5 1/2". A small sparrow. Upper parts are brown, streaked with black; underparts, sides of face, and rump are gray. Adult has chestnut crown, white eyebrow, with thin black line through eye. Young birds have streaked crown, buff eyebrow, and duller underparts.

Here is a link to a good picture of a clutch on Chipping Sparrow eggs.

Earlier Egg Identification post from Thursday, August 09, 2007