A Close-up of a Seaside Sparrow

A close-up look of the seaside sparrow.
(Philip Stouffer, Louisiana State University)

The vibrant yellow eyestripe of this seaside sparrow (Ammodramus maritimus) is a splash of color on an otherwise drab body. But that drab body lets it blend into marshgrass, where it feeds, breeds, and raises its young. This particular bird is from Louisiana marshland, near areas where oil washed ashore during the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in 2010. Researchers with the Gulf of Mexico Research Initiative are trying to find out whether the oil in the ocean affected birds on land. Find out more in a research story from GoMRI.