Wildlife Watching Wednesday: The Singing Song Sparrow

By: Tom Berg

Song Sparrows are one of many “little brown birds” that can be found throughout most of North America, but they can be fairly easy to identify once you know what to look for. Like most sparrows, they are small and mostly brown in color. They have brown and grayish-colored stripes on their face, along with a thick gray beak. They also have a white breast that is heavily streaked with brown, and those brown streaks usually come together on their chest to form a large dark spot. That central spot is a sure sign of a song sparrow.

As their name suggests, song sparrows truly love to sing. The male sings to attract a mate during breeding season, and males with the best songs seem to attract more females. Some song sparrows sing up to two dozen different songs. The male also sings a loud and vigorous song while defending its territory against rivals.

Once nesting begins, the pair may lay multiple clutches of eggs, especially if predators destroy the first brood. If food is particularly abundant, song sparrows may produce additional clutches to take advantage of the good fortune.

Song sparrows eat a wide variety of foods, including insects, worms and seeds and small berries in season. Some of their favorite insect prey includes beetles, moths, grasshoppers, caterpillars, ants and spiders. Preferred fruits include raspberries, cherries, mulberries and blackberries. All sorts of seeds are eaten when insects and berries are scarce, especially in the winter.

Although song sparrows seem to prefer open areas and forest edges, they can be found almost anywhere. Marshes, brushy stream banks, thickets and lake shores attract them, and they can also be found out west in dry grasslands and desert scrub lands. Mountain pine forests and deciduous forests can also be home to song sparrows.

This spring, if you notice a sparrow singing loudly atop a small bush or low-hanging tree branch, look for that dark spot on the middle of its chest. If you see it you will know that you just found a song sparrow!

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