Vermont Sparrow Key: Vermont Sparrow Key.docx

This key is designed to be printed on a color printer, cut out, and pasted onto a card that can be carried in your bird book.  Its use is simple.  It is a dichotomous key in which the paired comparisons are ordered in a visual table.  In no more than five steps using field marks, you should be able to identify any sparrow encountered in Vermont except for accidentals.  The page numbers refer to pages in Chandler Robins' Birds of North America.  Feel free to copy the key and add page numbers for your favorite bird book.

In the left-most colored column, the first nine birds have side-streaks.  The next 11 birds do not have side-streaks.  The same criteria apply to the other colored columns.  For example, suppose you saw a sparrow with no side streaks, an ear patch, no breast streaks, no white throat, and a median line to the nape of the neck, it would be a juvenile chipping sparrow.  This bird requires five field marks to key out.  Next, suppose you saw a bird with no side streaks, no wing bars, and a rufous tail, it would be an adult fox sparrow.  This bird requires three field marks to key out.

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