Overthinking it

On Saturday, I took part in an exciting discovery at Placerita Canyon. My fellow-birder and I were able to ID, based on its unique cat-like mewing call, a California Gnatcatcher. The bird list I got from the nature center there indicates it as a rare winter visitor to that park, recorded before only in 1972 and 1999. 

         

This morning, I am going over a photo that I took yesterday. Because the photo is taken from directly below it, all I can really make out was the plain underside, and a little bit of the head, showing a light supercilium. Very little is visible of the wings, and its back is completely hidden.

I can tell it is a sparrow, but which one? I sift and scan through pictures and drawings of various native species in books and websites. White-crowned sparrow? Chipping sparrow? Clearly not, no indication of the stripes on the crown, plus, wrong beak coloration. Song sparrow? Lincoln sparrow? No, no streaking on the chest. Savannah sparrow? No, no yellow visible. Brewer's sparrow? Possibly, but the facial markings would be different ... I groan and complain loudly to no one in particular how hard this bird is to identify. I even go so far as to send out the photos to some birder friends asking for help.

Hearing my vexation, my six-year old strolls up from behind, takes one look at the picture on the computer screen, and says, "Dad, isn't that just a regular [house] sparrow?"

Oh.

He's right, of course.