Bird Watcher's Digest Magazine

"Hold on," you may be saying. "Plan my trip around what? Are we talking about the same Lincoln's sparrow that the Peterson guide refers to as 'skulking'? The classic 'little brown bird,' notoriously shy, that is difficult to distinguish from other Melospiza sparrows even in the hand? Why on earth would I plan my vacation around that?"

Lots of reasons, I would argue. It wasn't always so, however. When I first got a job as an ornithologist's assistant collecting data on Lincoln's sparrows, I was disappointed. Wouldn't it be cooler to be studying great horned owls or peregrine falcons? Or at least the brightly colored Wilson's warblers that flitted about the edges of "my" territories? Lincoln's sparrows are so drab. They aren't even differentiated by sex!

But after a few weeks, a funny thing happened: I got hooked. Lincoln's sparrows may be shy—but wow, they are fierce. They definitely seemed to recognize by red-haired boss, who had the permits to visit the birds' nests. As soon as she stepped into a territory, the sparrows would crowd toward her, chipping angrily. You could imagine them shouting vile obscenities as they leaned from their little twig perches. Later, when I was alone at my observational post, I would actually feel a little embarrassed when one would fix me with an indignant eye. I would also feel a swell of something like pride: they noticed me.