![[bird]](http://www.struat.com/here/finch.jpg)
I’ve been calling all birds of a certain size “sparrow”. But I started second-guessing myself recently. I can pick out several different species among the fluttering masses, and I doubted whether sparrow was broad enough to be used with all of them. So I just looked the word up. The definition is, “Any of various small brownish or grayish New World finches.” (By the way, I found the use of the term “New World” there to be fairly satisfying for some reason.) I had to follow that up by making sure there wasn’t a catch hidden away in the word “finch”: “Any of various small birds having a short stout bill.” “Sparrow” seems generic enough to be used liberally with any of the little birds. But, in the future, I think I’m going to go with “finch” instead. “Finch” sounds better. That dictionary is putting ideas in my head.
4 Comments
that’s why it’s good to know scientific names, not just common names.
Nice photo. Is that a Finch?
We don’t have any sparrows here in our yard, only finches.
If I’m not mistaken, that particular LBJ (little brown job. It’s a birder’s term. ;-) is a House Sparrow. Passer Domesticus. It is not a New World bird, but is native to Eurasia and introduced from there to North and South America, South Africa, and Australia. (info from Peterson’s field guide to western birds)
An Old World sparrow! What will they think of next?
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