Meet Galveston’s Winter Sparrows
Folks call them “little brown jobs,” or LBJs for short.
They’re the sparrows, tiny birds you get a glimpse of as they zip across your yard or pop up momentarily as you walk across a field of prairie grass. They seem drab, largely indistinguishable from one another. But zoom in with your binoculars, or grab a shot with your camera, and you see an amazing variety of plumage hues and patterns, offset by striking bill and leg colors.
Nelson’s Sparrow: A Colorful Winter Visitor
The Nelson’s Sparrow is named after Edward William Nelson, an early 20th century naturalist who conducted field surveys for the U.S. Department of Agriculture. They are, for me, the most colorful of our winter sparrows. It has shades of brown, gray, white, cream and orange, with an especially bright orange face. When you see one in the marsh, that face and creamy white breast make them easily recognizable. This bird likes muddy ground, close to the edge of salt water marshes. They run about in the marsh grass like mice, and will fly for a short distance when flushed. My favorite place to find them is at the 17th Street jetty in Port Bolivar, just a short ferry ride across the Houston ship channel. They also are found at Galveston Island State Park and on Bob and Tuna roads on the Bolivar Peninsula. Like its cousin the Le Conte’s sparrow, they leave here in April and head to their breeding grounds far north.
