[cobirds] New Yard Bird (Song Sparrow) - Centennial, CO (Arapahoe)

The absence of Song Sparrows from my suburban, Centennial yard has bemused me since I moved here in March 2016. On one hand, this bird doesn't seem to prefer yards and feeders in my area all that much (although Ben Sampson's yard, farther east than mine, seems to be a veritable Song Sparrow hotspot). On the other hand, sparrows generally seem to like my yard, owing to a line of brushy bushes, young trees, and plants that I let go to seed (even when my neighbor thinks I shouldn't). My hunch was that most of these birds just don't move much around my area, spending their lives along the nearby High Line Canal, Big & Little Dry Creeks, and marshes. And any that are moving around would, I assume, prefer those sort of spots too. (I'm open to hearing other, better reasoned reasons for the absence of this bird!)

In any case, I was pleasantly surprised this morning to see this bulky, familiar sparrows among the juncos, foraging for millet. It made me wonder if my most recent bit of "landscaping" -- an unruly pile of young Siberian Elms that I hacked down -- might have contributed to its visit. More likely, it's just the millet, the seeded catnip, and other, less observable things (to me, at least) that brought this bird here.

- Jared Del Rosso
Centennial, CO

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