I spotted a different bird on the kitchen fence today.
Its golden yellow belly caught my eye. That can’t be a sparrow, I thought, even though its light brown back fell in the range of those tweeters. It wasn’t striped on top. And there was that sunny belly. Those characteristics disqualified sparrows.
I thumbed through Stan Teiela’s Birds of Massachusetts Field Guide. The guide organizes birds by color, which works well for me. I stopped at the Carolina wren, Throthous ludocianus. Its yellow belly grabbed me, a welcome reminder of summer when snow lingers underfoot.
The bird has a “prominent white eyebrow,” says Stan. That’s an eyebrow? It’s really a stripe running from in front of each eye to the back of the head.
“Look for the stubbyupturned tail,” he adds. Stubby? I prefer perky or assertive because, as Stan says, the tail is often cocked up.
Despite the Carolina appellation, the bird lives year-round in eastern Massachusetts.