Melospiza melodia

There were plenty of these at the Humboldt Bay National Wildlife Refuge this morning. This is the ubiquitous and ever adaptive Song Sparrow. A common resident of marsh and scrubland, this bird is one of the most variable sparrows in North America, both in appearance and voice. While facial and body patterns remain basically the same throughout the races, their coloring differs slightly from region to region, the markings being more sharply or less distinctly contrasting. Likewise, vocal aspects vary between populations. Like some other sparrows, it is understood that the young Song Sparrow learns its song from its neighbors, consequently carrying on the particular "dialect" of its region through the generations. The repertoire of a Song Sparrow in the San Francisco Bay Area, for instance, resembles that of a Song Sparrow at the Humboldt Bay NWR, though exhibits its own distinctive qualities of melody and tone.

I waited many times with this species today in the hopes that one would sing for the camera, but I never caught it. Some days I feel like such an amateur. I do like this shot though--the cattails are bursting apart all over the marsh right now.