Random Bird Pix: Botteri's Sparrow

It was a busy, hectic weekend with almost no bird watching, so I thought I'd reach back into the photo archives and share this image of a Botteri's sparrow (Aimophila botterii).

I digiscoped this rare sparrow along the San Pedro River near Bisbee, Arizona in August 2004. Note the flat head, long bill and tail, and clear breast. If you check the range map for Botteri's sparrow in your field guide, you'll see that you can find this bird in the US only in the SE corner of Arizona and in a tiny area of Texas' southernmost gulf coast. One great way to add this species to your life list is to attend the Southwest Wings Birding Festival, held each August in Bisbee. It's a very fun (and incredibly birdy) event with excellent field trips and guides. Julie and I were speakers at the SWWBF the year we found this purty li'l fella.

Once you are in the appropriate part of the world, the best way to locate a Botteri's sparrow is by sound. Their song is fairly distinctive--as I recall, it is like the song of a field sparrow or olive sparrow, but sharper and more emphatic. It also rises slightly in pitch, rather than descending.

Matteo Botteri, for whom the species is named, was a Yugoslavian ornithologist who relocated to Mexico in the mid-1800s. He collected the first Botteri's sparrow in Mexico in 1857. And his surname is pronounced BOTT-er-eyes, according to most references. The Botteri's sparrow ranks among the birds with the most-often-mispronounced names, right up there with phainopepla, Xantus's hummingbird or murrelet, and pyrrhuloxia.