Dan's Feathursday Feature: Henslow's Sparrow

The words often used to describe the Henslow's Sparrow are "uncommon" and "inconspicuous." I got a good lesson several summers ago in the meaning of inconspicuous.

I was conducting a nesting bird survey in the summer of 2018 in a grassland area south of Chicago. At one of my survey points, I was lucky to hear a Henslow's Sparrow sing. Actually, sing is probably not the best word. The Henslow's voice is a truncated chirp/cheep that lasts all of a second, as if it wants to sing a whole verse, but can't remember the words.

I managed to spot the bird and was inching my way toward it when I noticed some very strident cheeping at my feet, coming from the base of the tall grass. Every 10 seconds or so I would hear a sharp "tsip!" It kept moving around—on the ground right in front of me, then off to my right side, then back in front, then behind me. I'm not always the brightest man in the room—especially in the early morning—so even though I was doing a nesting bird survey, it took me about 5 minutes to realize that I had unknowingly invaded the space of some, uh, nesting birds. I assumed the cheeping was probably the mate of that singing Henslow's Sparrow, who had by now stopped singing and was looking agitated. I backed away slowly until they calmed down, and I waited. Sure enough, after a few minutes another Henslow's Sparrow showed itself briefly, and the two of them disappeared in the tall grass.

Though it had been moving around me, within a yard of my feet, I never was able to spot that bird until it decided to pop up to see whether I was still around. That is the definition of inconspicuous. Amazing.

It was a sunny morning, and the birds were in a singing mood, so by 8:30 when I finished the survey I had heard and spotted seven more Henslow's Sparrows. Considering that this bird is close to being listed as a threatened species, I count myself very fortunate. And I was happy to gather data that showed the positive results of the prairie restoration work being done by Cook County.

Enjoy the photos, made possible by the foresight and hard work of conservationists, for whom "inconspicuous" does not mean "unimportant!"

Dan's Feathursday Feature is a regular contribution to the COS blog featuring the thoughts, insights and pictures of Chicago birder, Dan Lory on birds of the Chicago region.