The Saltmarsh Sparrow

Saltmarsh Sparrow On Nantucket 2022

Let me start with the obvious, it can be difficult to identify birds. Looking through binoculars, and then at a field guide, then back at the bird to confirm you have the right species, well it's only easy if you’re looking at something very large and very stationary (“ah yes that’s definitely a Great Blue Heron”). When you get to species that are very fast, very small, and look a lot like other species in the same family, it can get much more challenging. 

In my first year of birding I visited Nantucket Island in the summer, and immediately started seeing new species I had never seen before. There are so many unique habitats on the island, and visiting estuaries and salt marshes were my favorite because of the wide variety of wildlife that thrives in those environments. One morning I brought my wife Cornelia with me to experience the Eel Point sunrise, and we had a beautiful morning walking out to the end of the point and back. As we headed back to the car, the last part of the trail passed by a beautiful salt marsh where I had seen some really great birds*. This time I saw just a tiny flutter of a little brown sparrow. It took me a minute but I finally caught it in my binoculars, and realized it was different from any sparrow I had seen before. It had a distinctive spot of color on its face, and that was an important detail to me because I had been trying to find my first Savannah Sparrow, which has a bit of yellow on its face. In the brief moment I described it as “orangish yellow”, and as I tried to get a better look it flew off and disappeared over the marsh. Cornelia was ready to get back home because our son would be waking up, so just that quick glimpse was all I had.  

Let the identification begin! Since I had been hunting the Savannah Sparrow that was my immediate guess, but I wasn’t sure. We drove home and I was excited about the bird, but I kept replaying the quick sighting in my head. Yes it had that dash of color on its face, but it seemed a lot more orange than yellow. I got home and went through my field guide, found the Savannah Sparrow, but it just didn’t look right. The color I has seen was more on the mystery bird’s cheek, and the Savannah sparrow’s yellow was located in its brow. Was I mistaken? My confidence was now shot, and I started looking at other birds to see if anything else looked matched what I had seen. Baird’s Sparrow was a better fit, but they only live in the midwest. Maybe something else? Scanning down the page it jumped out at me, the Saltmarsh Sparrow. 

Both the orange cheeks and the range map suggested that it was probably the right bird. I had said “yellowish orange”, or was it “orangish yellow”? I was out at sunrise, was the light just orange on its face? The more questions I asked myself the more the doubt grew, and finally I began to second guess that I had even been birding that morning at all. I was beginning to resign myself to the fact that maybe I didn’t have enough confidence to positively ID the bird. This was a huge disappointment because it was definitely not a bird I had seen before. At this point my wife walked into the room, and seeing I was looking a little dejected she asked me what was going on. The conversation went something like this:

Me: “I don’t think it was a Savannah Sparrow, there's a bird called a Saltmarsh Sparrow that has an orange face, and that was probably it, but now I’m not 100% sure what I saw” 

Wife: “Wait, it could have been a bird called a Saltmarsh Sparrow?”

Me: “Yes”

Wife: “Well we were standing in the middle of a saltmarsh. I mean what are the chances. I’m sure it was definitely a Saltmarsh Sparrow”.

Such is the logic that won the day. In retrospect, all I needed was a bit of a confidence boost, someone advocating on behalf of the evidence presented, and not just my own brutal cross-examination. I calmed down, logged the Saltmarsh Sparrow, and moved on with my day. I made the call, and I’ll stand by my ID.

However there was something that popped up time and again, a bit of secret doubt that the bird was logged incorrectly. Sometimes when I hit a milestone like bird #150, I couldn’t help but think deep down “or maybe this is just #149”. Its one of the only birds thats ever made me feel this way, but it was a real feeling and it was sticking with me.

My closure came this summer when I found myself alone at Eel point again, looking out over my favorite saltmarsh on a quest to see a Yellow-crowned Night Heron. Suddenly a flash of brown fluttered across the marsh. Standing in what might have been my footprints from two years prior, I raised my camera, and snapped a picture. It was a beautiful Saltmarsh Sparrow, in the same exact spot I believe I first saw the bird. Maybe he even remembered me. 

*To be more specific when I say “really great birds”, my first Black-crowned Night Heron, my first Yellow-Crowned Night Heron, and a congregation of Glossy Ibises. Plus a full assortment of other shorebirds, waterfowl, terns, and raptors. It's my first stop whenever I have the good fortune to visit Nantucket.