Lesson Learned

And here I thought that this was one of my dull, ordinary little brown birds that I’ve been complaining about. Well, not exactly complaining – that would really be petty, but I do envy those folks who have a wonderful, colorful variety of birds in their yards. I suppose in comparison to some he is dull and ordinary, but when I looked at him closely I found a very handsome fellow with a lovely gold crown and crazy orange legs.

Not surprisingly, he's a Golden-crowned Sparrow (Zonotrichia atricapilla), and he’s on page 343 of my bird book. It says he’s “breeding” as opposed to “non-breeding” or “ immature”. I have no idea what all that means but I would assume it refers to his plumage or age. I just know that I’ve learned my lesson. Well, that's not exactly the right way to put it because I always knew in my heart that if you look at ordinary things you will often find great beauty.

Sometimes it takes a reminder, and this one came with feathers.