Song Sparrow
In the East, Song Sparrows return to their breeding range as early as February in the South and from mid to late-March through early May in Maine. Males vigorously defend nesting territories with songs and short chases after rivals. Territories can be as small as one-half acre in favorable habitat or as much as one and one-half acres. Nonmigratory birds tend to stay on or near their territory during fall and winter, although they become more social during the winter.

During courtship, males fly from shrub to shrub on fluttering wings with outstretched necks, their heads and tails held high. They sing at each stop. The task of preparing the nest and incubating the eggs is left primarily to the female. Both parents feed the young a diet made up primarily of insect foods, such as beetles, flies, and caterpillars. After breeding season, a Song Sparrow's diet consists of weed and grass seeds and a few berries, in addition to insects.

Song Sparrows often have three broods per season. After approximately two weeks, the first brood has learned to fly and is ready to leave the nest. At this point, these fledglings become the male's responsibility, and the female begins laying eggs again. Song Sparrows build their nests on the ground, concealed by a mound of grass or brush pile, and they use these nests more than once. Pairs may remain mated through successive seasons.

First-year birds may sing an autumnal song, a low, connected warbling that sounds more like the song of a Purple Finch than that of the Song Sparrow. The typical song sung during courtship or territorial defense consists of three parts. Following a strongly rhythmic introduction of two to four equally spaced phrases is a central trilled section and then a short, and somewhat irregular, series of notes. Each male sings between 6 and 24 different songs, repeating each several times before proceeding to the next. Song Sparrows typically sing from a perch 7 to 15 feet above ground. Song Sparrows sing throughout the year, although much less in winter. There is also a tseep alarm note and a distinctive and recognizable call note, tchenk.

Song Sparrows breed from the Aleutian Islands and southern Alaska across Canada north to Great Slave Lake and the southern Hudson Bay to the Maritime Provinces. The range extends south to northern Georgia and northeastern Alabama, across the northern Great Plains to the Pacific Coast. Below the Rocky Mountains, this sparrow's range edges into Mexico and extends along the coast. The winter range includes almost the entire United States. Song Sparrows can be found as high as 9,000 feet, but they typically choose lower altitudes than the conspecific Lincoln's Sparrow (M. lincolnii). Where they occur in arid regions, they are confined to marshes, boggy fields, wet meadows, or streamside vegetation. Aleutian and coastal Alaskan subspecies are confined to sandy and scrubby beaches, and in the San Francisco Bay area, resident Song Sparrows frequent salt marshes. In other areas, typical Song Sparrow habitats include brushy areas along the shores of ponds or stream banks, shrubby moist meadows, cattail swamps, rocky woodland clearings, or open second-growth woodlands. These sparrows inhabit gardens and yards in suburbs or small towns.
Song Sparrow Range Map

Description: The Song Sparrow is an extremely common, widespread, and geographically variable bird. There are 31 recognized subspecies, the most of any North American species. All share a long, rounded tail; relatively short, rounded wings; a grayish or white supercilium; a pale central crown stripe; and a conspicuous, broad, dark malar stripe separating the white moustachial stripe from the white chin and throat. The base color of the back varies, but it is always streaked with darker rufous brown or dark brown. The wings and tail are rusty brown or dark brown. The rump is brown and streaked. The whitish breast and flanks are usually boldly streaked or spotted, the spots usually coalescing into a prominent blotchy spot at the center of the breast. Ear coverts are gray or gray buff with dark edges. Both sexes look alike.

Eastern birds are gray brown on the back with dark streaks, rufous brown wings and tail, lateral crown stripes, and a well-developed central spot. As one moves west, the races become progressively darker, with dark rufous to blackish streaking, except in the Southwest, where some races are extremely pale with a pale rufous back color and light streaking on the breast. The races that occur along the West Coast become progressively larger, bigger billed, and grayer, reaching a peak with the very large Aleutian birds.

Juvenile birds are buffier with finer and fainter streaking. They have a less-distinct head pattern and lack the central spot. It is very difficult to distinguish juvenile Song Sparrows from juvenile Swamp Sparrows (M. georgiana) and Lincoln's Sparrows. The molt from juvenal to adult plumage begins between July and late September. It takes about two months, after which juveniles are indistinguishable from.

The habit of pumping their long, rounded tail up and down during their slightly undulating flight may help distinguish Song Sparrows from other sparrows. The Savannah Sparrow (Passerculus sandwichensis), a similar-streaked sparrow that sometimes has a central spot, has a more direct flight and a shorter, slightly notched tail. A Savannah Sparrow has rufous tones in the wing or tail, a less-contrasting head, and yellow lores (usually).

Vesper Sparrows (Pooecetes gramineus) have a shorter tail with white outer feathers. It has a conspicuous eye ring and a more uniformly streaked crown. Fox Sparrows (Passerella iliaca) are larger than all but the Aleutian Song Sparrows. Fox Sparrows are more streaked and have bicolored bills. The slightly smaller Lincoln's Sparrow also has a shorter tail than the Song Sparrow. It has a darker gray supercilium, and a distinct buffy submoustachial stripe. The malar stripe is thinner than the Song Sparrow's. Although Lincoln's Sparrows' breast stripes may sometimes form a central spot, they are finer and the upper breast color is buffy rather than white.

Within northern populations of Song Sparrows, there may be both migratory and nonmigratory individuals. The decision to migrate is apparently an individual choice; it is not an inherited tendency. Once on wintering grounds, migratory birds mix with residents in loose flocks during harsh weather.

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

Copyright © 2003 Shaw Creek Bird Supply