White Throated Sparrow with orange lores

White throated Sparrow with orange lores, Jabish canal trail, Belchertown, October 9, 2010
White throated Sparrow with orange lores, Jabish canal trail, Belchertown, October 9, 2010

I came across this unique looking individual in a weedy area along the Jabish Canal yesterday and was lucky enough to get a few shots off before he disappeared not to be seen again. It is a color variation I have never seen before in a White throated Sparrow. The usual yellow lores replaced by bright orange certainly drew my attention right away. I expected the change was diet induced and a quick search on the web confirmed my suspicions. There are records of White throated Sparrows with orange lores. Most of these are of birds captured during banding operations. The likely suspect for the color change is best described by the following excerpt

"Orange coloration in place of yellow is most readily observed in the terminal tail band of Cedar Waxwings (Bombycilla cedrorum). This was first seen over 30 years ago, and has since been traced to the ingestion of rhodoxanthin, a red pigment found in the berries of an introduced shrub, Morrow�s Honeysuckle (Lonicera morrowii) (Hudon and Brush 1989, Witmer 1996). The pigment must be consumed during feather development in order to result in altered plumage coloration" (Craves, J.A. 1999. White-throated Sparrow with orange lores. Mich. Birds Nat. Hist. 6:87-88).

I will certainly be looking at White throated Sparrows with even more detail now to see if I can find another. A more typical White throated Sparrow male is pictured below for comparison

White throated Sparrow typical, Belchertown, December 2009