Wildlife Watching Wednesday: The Grass-Loving Savannah Sparrow

By: Tom Berg

There are many different species of sparrows in North America, and some of them can be difficult to identify. Most of them are relatively small and brown in color, and most people just call them “sparrows”. But if you take the time to learn the differences, some of our native sparrows are pretty interesting birds.

One interesting species is the Savannah Sparrow. Savannah sparrows are medium-sized sparrows with a wingspan of about eight inches. They are mostly brown on their back and wings, with a white belly that has brown streaks on the breast. They have a short tail, too. Their most identifiable trait is a small yellow patch in front of their eye and just above it. When you see that flash of yellow, it’s a good hint that you might have found a savannah sparrow.

Savannah sparrows are very common, and they breed throughout much of the continental United States (including Alaska) and all of Canada. They typically do not breed in the southern USA, though, preferring to fly farther north. They live in grasslands and open areas where there are not many trees. The love the grass! The female even builds her nest in the dense grass, or sometimes in bushes or small shrubs close to the ground.

Insects are their preferred food when raising their young, since the baby sparrows need lots of protein to grow quickly. The adult Savannah sparrows hop along the ground and among the grass picking off bugs like grasshoppers, crickets, beetles, spiders, ants and other creepy-crawly insects. When insects are scarce, the sparrows are perfectly happy to eat a variety of seeds, instead. It has been observed that the female often brings back as much as 10 times her weight in food to the nest every day for herself and the baby birds.

Although it might sound like the Savannah sparrow got its name from its love of grassy savannah locations, that’s not really true. In fact, the Savannah sparrow was named in 1811 when Scottish-American ornithologist Alexander Wilson collected a specimen of this species on the Atlantic coast near Savannah, Georgia. They have been known as the Savannah sparrow ever since!

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