Photography of Birds – Set # 138
Set # 138
Song Sparrow
Song Sparrow
Common predators to the song sparrow include cats, hawks, and owls, however snakes, dogs, and the American kestrel are treated ambiguously, suggesting that they are less of a threat. The song sparrow recognizes enemies by both instinctual and learned patterns (including cultural learning), and adjusts its future behavior based on both its own experiences in encounters, and from watching other birds interact with the enemies. Comparisons of experiments on hand-raised birds to observation of birds in the wild suggest that the fear of owls and hawks is instinctual, but fear of cats is learned.
Lincoln’s Sparrow
Lincoln’s Sparrow
H.J. Ruiz - Avian101 
Pingback: Photography of Birds – Set # 138 — H.J. Ruiz – Avian101 | THE DARK SIDE OF THE MOON...
Love the pictures and the information. I didn’t know the history of how Lincoln’s Sparrow name came to be. I used to see Song Sparrows in Bryant Park in NYC!
Thanks a lot, Mike. 🙂
Enjoyed the info and photos here, HJ. I found the song sparrow’s learning of predators espec. interesting.
Birds are definitely interesting, in their learned behavior and imprinted skills; and each species vary in comparison.
Thank you, Jet. 🙂
Many thanks. I always learn something new from your posts. That birds also learn, here specifically how to avoid cats, is of great importance. I simply hadn’t given it enough thought, even though I know that these cute domestic pets are responsible annually for the deaths of millions of birds without the need for them to consume their prey for food.
You may have heard at one time that if you leave dogs with a full bag of dog food they, most like it eat the whole bag in one sitting. If you do the same with a cat, it would eat only the necessary and would not be tempted to eat any extra. However, they can not resist the gene imprinted skills of hunting.
By the way, I have two cats that I love, they are indoor cats. I do understand the problem with cats, I see them daily in my backyard. I wonder who they belong to, they have a collar. Thank you, Paul. 🙂