It was mid-late morning on November 20, 2023. I went outside and was getting ready to go somewhere and spotted a couple more birds. This little sparrow was one of them. It flew pretty close to me on the ground seeming to be undisturbed. It was kind of on the border of my mom's yard and the neighbor's yard in and near the base of this bush. It could have been feeding and looking for nesting material because it kept flying around to the other side of the bush and up over the fence into the neighbor's backyard in a bigger tree. It was camouflaged very well with the substrate might I add. It was sunny with little cloud cover at about 71-72 degrees Fahrenheit.
Class: Aves
Subclass: Neoaves
Superorder: Neognathae
Order: Passeriformes
I identified this bird because of its frequent perching on the branches of the bush and other trees and the fence. You can barely see the feet in some of the pictures, but not enough to make them out. I can see at least two toes in the front in one picture. The bird was not very vocal though.
Willow Flycatcher had been seen at this site for a month, but not in the last week. The picture is not good, but does show a likely empy; note the yellow beak. Both observers repeatedly heard the Willow’s "fitz-bugh" call.
With Don Fraser, Dave Bowman, and others; an epically successful chase of the 9 ... no, 16! American Flamingos, a wondrous gift from Hurricane Idalia. The park's gates were closed, so birders walked in, a distance of 1.3 miles. I did not record the weather, but it was partly sunny and breezy, We headed back east at 1555 and exited the park at 1630. I headed north, stopping at two coastal spots in Pasco County on the way home,