Olive Sparrow
Arremonops rufivirgatus
The Olive Sparrow’s preferred habitat is dense thorny scrublands. They range from southern Texas to Central America and are non-migratory. Their songs are reminiscent of the bouncing ball song of the Black-Chinned Sparrow, and their appearance is similar to a Green-Tailed Towhee. Most of their time is spent on or near the ground, both when foraging for seeds and the occasional insect, and when nesting.

Olive Sparrow(Arremonops rufivirgatus) |
Description: When I left California for Texas, this was a bird I was hoping to meet. Atascosa NWR was a short drive from my camp in Brownsville, Texas, and remained open during the COVID-19 crisis, when many other nearby birding hotspots shut down. |
Date Taken: 2020:04:20 8:58 |
Location:
Atascosa NWR |
Camera Information: NIKON D500, 550 mm, f/8.0, 1/200 |
File Name: OliveSparrow_D503991-Atascosa-NWR |
© 2020 Jack Daynes, shadeTreeImaging.com |


Olive Sparrow(Arremonops rufivirgatus) |
Description: When I left California for Texas, this was a bird I was hoping to meet. Atascosa NWR was a short drive from my camp in Brownsville, Texas, and remained open during the COVID-19 crisis, when many other nearby birding hotspots shut down. |
Date Taken: 2020:04:20 8:58 |
Location:
Atascosa NWR |
Camera Information: NIKON D500, 550 mm, f/8.0, 1/200 |
File Name: OliveSparrow_D503992-Atascosa-NWR |
© 2020 Jack Daynes, shadeTreeImaging.com |


Olive Sparrow(Arremonops rufivirgatus) |
Description: When I left California for Texas, this was a bird I was hoping to meet. Atascosa NWR was a short drive from my camp in Brownsville, Texas, and remained open during the COVID-19 crisis, when many other nearby birding hotspots shut down. |
Date Taken: 2020:04:20 8:58 |
Location:
Atascosa NWR |
Camera Information: NIKON D500, 550 mm, f/8.0, 1/500 |
File Name: OliveSparrow_D504000-Atascosa-NWR |
© 2020 Jack Daynes, shadeTreeImaging.com |


Olive Sparrow(Arremonops rufivirgatus) |
Description: When I left California for Texas, this was a bird I was hoping to meet. Atascosa NWR was a short drive from my camp in Brownsville, Texas, and remained open during the COVID-19 crisis, when many other nearby birding hotspots shut down. |
Date Taken: 2020:04:20 9:06 |
Location:
Atascosa NWR |
Camera Information: NIKON D500, 550 mm, f/8.0, 1/160 |
File Name: OliveSparrow_D504019-Atascosa-NWR |
© 2020 Jack Daynes, shadeTreeImaging.com |


Olive Sparrow(Arremonops rufivirgatus) |
Description: When I left California for Texas, this was a bird I was hoping to meet. Atascosa NWR was a short drive from my camp in Brownsville, Texas, and remained open during the COVID-19 crisis, when many other nearby birding hotspots shut down. |
Date Taken: 2020:04:20 9:06 |
Location:
Atascosa NWR |
Camera Information: NIKON D500, 550 mm, f/8.0, 1/200 |
File Name: OliveSparrow_D504022-Atascosa-NWR |
© 2020 Jack Daynes, shadeTreeImaging.com |


Olive Sparrow(Arremonops rufivirgatus) |
Description: When I left California for Texas, this was a bird I was hoping to meet. Atascosa NWR was a short drive from my camp in Brownsville, Texas, and remained open during the COVID-19 crisis, when many other nearby birding hotspots shut down. |
Date Taken: 2020:04:20 9:08 |
Location:
Atascosa NWR |
Camera Information: NIKON D500, 550 mm, f/8.0, 1/200 |
File Name: OliveSparrow_D504036-Atascosa-NWR |
© 2020 Jack Daynes, shadeTreeImaging.com |


Olive Sparrow(Arremonops rufivirgatus) |
Description: Because Olive Sparrows love dense thickets and understory, they are difficult to capture their images. These were one of the birds I applied effort to find on this day. My third visit to Atascosa NWR in South Texas was intended to pickup images of a couple of the birds I came up short with on my second visit. But then I started meeting new birds and I stayed all day. |
Date Taken: 2020:04:24 8:51 |
Location:
Atascosa NWR |
Camera Information: NIKON D500, 800 mm, f/8.0, 1/320 |
File Name: OliveSparrow_D505664-Atascosa-NWR |
© 2020 Jack Daynes, shadeTreeImaging.com |


Olive Sparrow(Arremonops rufivirgatus) |
Description: Because Olive Sparrows love dense thickets and understory, they are difficult to capture their images. These were one of the birds I applied effort to find on this day. My third visit to Atascosa NWR in South Texas was intended to pickup images of a couple of the birds I came up short with on my second visit. But then I started meeting new birds and I stayed all day. |
Date Taken: 2020:04:24 8:57 |
Location:
Atascosa NWR |
Camera Information: NIKON D500, 800 mm, f/8.0, 1/500 |
File Name: OliveSparrow_D505722-Atascosa-NWR |
© 2020 Jack Daynes, shadeTreeImaging.com |


Olive Sparrow(Arremonops rufivirgatus) |
Description: Because Olive Sparrows love dense thickets and understory, they are difficult to capture their images. These were one of the birds I applied effort to find on this day. My third visit to Atascosa NWR in South Texas was intended to pickup images of a couple of the birds I came up short with on my second visit. But then I started meeting new birds and I stayed all day. |
Date Taken: 2020:04:24 10:12 |
Location:
Atascosa NWR |
Camera Information: NIKON D500, 800 mm, f/8.0, 1/800 |
File Name: OliveSparrow_D505798-Atascosa-NWR |
© 2020 Jack Daynes, shadeTreeImaging.com |


Olive Sparrow(Arremonops rufivirgatus) |
Description: Because Olive Sparrows love dense thickets and understory, they are difficult to capture their images. These were one of the birds I applied effort to find on this day. My third visit to Atascosa NWR in South Texas was intended to pickup images of a couple of the birds I came up short with on my second visit. But then I started meeting new birds and I stayed all day. |
Date Taken: 2020:04:24 10:24 |
Location:
Atascosa NWR |
Camera Information: NIKON D500, 800 mm, f/8.0, 1/320 |
File Name: OliveSparrow_D505851-Atascosa-NWR |
© 2020 Jack Daynes, shadeTreeImaging.com |


Olive Sparrow(Arremonops rufivirgatus) |
Description: Because Olive Sparrows love dense thickets and understory, they are difficult to capture their images. These were one of the birds I applied effort to find on this day. My third visit to Atascosa NWR in South Texas was intended to pickup images of a couple of the birds I came up short with on my second visit. But then I started meeting new birds and I stayed all day. |
Date Taken: 2020:04:24 14:18 |
Location:
Atascosa NWR |
Camera Information: NIKON D500, 800 mm, f/8.0, 1/500 |
File Name: OliveSparrow_D507133-Atascosa-NWR |
© 2020 Jack Daynes, shadeTreeImaging.com |


Olive Sparrow(Arremonops rufivirgatus) |
Description: I guess I missed meeting these birds on my first stop here in the spring of 2020. Less than two miles south of the small town of Quemado Texas is a roadside rest stop, or picnic area, as Texas calls them, where I had a couple of first meetings with bird species in March 2020 on my way to Brownsville Texas. My winter visit in January 2021 had some nice surprises for me as well. |
Date Taken: 2021:01:11 12:09 |
Location:
Roadside Stop |
Camera Information: NIKON D5, 800 mm, f/5.6, 1/2000 |
File Name: OliveSparrow_D5X0029-Quemado-TX |
© 2021 Jack Daynes, shadeTreeImaging.com |


Olive Sparrow(Arremonops rufivirgatus) |
Description: I guess I missed meeting these birds on my first stop here in the spring of 2020. Less than two miles south of the small town of Quemado Texas is a roadside rest stop, or picnic area, as Texas calls them, where I had a couple of first meetings with bird species in March 2020 on my way to Brownsville Texas. My winter visit in January 2021 had some nice surprises for me as well. |
Date Taken: 2021:01:11 12:12 |
Location:
Roadside Stop |
Camera Information: NIKON D5, 800 mm, f/5.6, 1/4000 |
File Name: OliveSparrow_D5X0092-Quemado-TX |
© 2021 Jack Daynes, shadeTreeImaging.com |


Olive Sparrow(Arremonops rufivirgatus) |
Description: Olive Sparrows love thick tangled underbrush, and the sactuary here has them in spades. On my first visit to Texas last spring, the pandemic of 2020 caused the Sabal Palm Sanctuary to close its doors. It took until this Monday in January for me to manage my first visit here. |
Date Taken: 2021:01:18 9:53 |
Location:
Sable Palms Sanctuary |
Camera Information: NIKON D5, 800 mm, f/11.0, 1/2000 |
File Name: OliveSparrow_D5X1724-SabalPalms |
© 2021 Jack Daynes, shadeTreeImaging.com |

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