Expert: Julia Booth - 8/6/2008

Question
QUESTION: This picture shows a small bird (Sparrow family?) that was feeding a much larger bird that doesn't look at all like the small bird. What are they?

ANSWER: They are House Sparrows. Looks like Adult female feeding what could be a juvenile male. Can't be sure about the sex yet, actually.

Sexual dimorphism can make birdwatching very confusing. In some cases, the male, female and juvenile all look completely different from one another. The male Red-Winged Blackbird is a dark bird with brightly colored wings. The female is a plain, mottled brown. In other cases, like with waterfowl and shore birds, plumage can vary by season -meaning they will look completely different in the summer than they do in the winter.

God just wants to confuse us, I think.

Yes, they sure are related. But it's a reasonable question.

Julia

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: Another bird expert provided the following which seems to be a better fit.

Your photos show an adult Chipping Sparrow (left) feeding a juvenile Brown-headed Cowbird. Cowbirds don’t build their own nests; they lay eggs in nests of other species, and in many cases, the cowbird egg hatches sooner than the host bird’s eggs, so the host parent thinks the cowbird is its own offspring. It then feeds and raises the cowbird, often at the expense of its own chicks.

Chipping Sparrow is common across North America and one of the most frequent hosts of cowbird eggs and young. The sparrow in your shot appears to be molting into its winter plumage. It doesn’t have the pure white stripe above the eye, and its chestnut head is fading.

More about cowbirds:
http://www.audubon.org/bird/research/#introduction

And Chipping Sparrow:
http://www.birds.cornell.edu/AllAboutBirds/BirdGuide/Chipping_Sparrow.html  

Answer
You know -I misunderstood your question. I thought that you were saying that the larger bird was the one that was doing the feeding, which is why I was confused as to why you were asking.

That makes since, I guess.

A female Chipping Sparrow resembles a male House Sparrow. The juvenile Cowbird is rather plain in color and does resemble a female House sparrow.

Well, very good then. Always better to run it by more than one person.