Chipping Sparrow

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Chipping Sparrow
In the days of John James Audubon, the Chipping Sparrow was one of the most common species throughout the United States. At the turn of the century, they experienced a dramatic drop in population numbers in towns. Observers speculated that this was due to competition with the increasingly common House Sparrow, introduced from Europe, and from spreading cowbird nest parasitism.

Today, Chipping Sparrows are widespread and common, having adapted well to human-made environments—suburban lawns and plantings, orchards, parks, and golf courses. Their preferred natural habitat is along woodland edges or in dry open woodlands with grassy floors, typically replacing Field Sparrows (S. pusilla) as old fields and logged areas are reforested. In the southeast, Chipping Sparrows are common in open pine forests; in the northern and mountain states, they can be found in openings in the forest, along streams and lakes, in spruce bogs mountain meadows and in stands of jack or red pine. In the prairie states, they may be found in cottonwood groves.
Chipping Sparrow Range Map

In settled areas, Chipping Sparrows often nest quite close to human habitations, occasionally even in plantings adjacent to houses. Nests are usually placed in a tree, most often a conifer, and are built by the female. The height of the nest varies from ground level to up to 60 feet but are most often less than 15 feet up. Chipping Sparrows typically raise two broods, sometimes three in the southern part of their range. The male feeds the female as she incubates three to four eggs, and both parents feed the nestlings for approximately one week and a half, at which time the juveniles leave the nest.

Like many birds that are primarily seed-eating through the winter, Chipping Sparrows shift to an insectivorous diet during the breeding season. After leaving the nest site, family groups wander, feeding in weedy fields and along forest edges, sometimes with other family groups.

Chipping Sparrows begin to migrate in early October in the North. They winter across the southern states and in northern Mexico. They are most common in southern Arizona and New Mexico, central Texas and the Southeast, using deciduous and mixed woods in the East and oak-juniper woodlands in the Southwest. In winter, the Chipping Sparrow seems to reside in regions the American Tree Sparrow (S arborea) has vacated-typically areas where the average January temperature usually remains above freezing.

The song of the Chipping Sparrow is a simple, dry trill, all on one pitch, so similar to that of both the Pine Warbler and Dark-eyed Junco that even the experienced observer can be fooled. The speed and length of the song may vary. Another vocalization, sometimes heard early in the morning, consists of very short songs rapidly repeated. Occasionally, Chipping Sparrows are heard singing at night.

Description: Sparrows of the genus Spizella are small and slim with unstreaked underparts and long notched tails. The Chipping Sparrow is distinguished in adult plumage by its distinctive head pattern: rusty cap, white forehead bordered by black; white superciliary stripe; black ocular stripe, and gray rump. Sexes are alike. In winter, the crown is streaked with black.

Other sparrows with rusty caps-Tree Sparrow, Field Sparrow, Rufous-crowned (Aimophila ruficeps) and Swamp Sparrow (Melospiza georgiana)-lack the Chipping Sparrow's distinctive black and white eye stripes. Juvenile and first-year Chipping Sparrows are very similar to Clay-colored Sparrow (S. pallida) and Brewer's Sparrow (S. breweri), but Chipping Sparrow has a more distinct ocular stripe that continues to the bill. Clay-colored and Brewer's have pale lores and an ocular stripe extending only to behind the eye.

Visit Shaw Creek Bird Supply to see our selection of Chipping Sparrow Feeders.