Once you’ve given it a name, and learned a little bit about how it lives, no sparrow seems quite so humdrum. Back at home, dust off any old field guide to the birds, and see if you can narrow down your humdrum sparrow to a particular species. Is it streaky or clean? Is there a central “tie-pin” where the streaks converge in the center of the breast? Are the streaks thick and blurry, or thin and fine? Take notes about these characteristics to help you remember what you’ve seen. Next, see if you can get a look at the pattern on the breast of the bird. 1938 (one of our most Song-Sparrow-like quarterbacks) Does the bird have a rusty-red cap? Any white at the throat? Does it have white or brown streaks above the eyes like an old-fashioned football helmet?Ĭlarence “Ace” Parker c. When you see a sparrow, what should you look for? Many sparrows have distinctive patterns around the head, for instance. You can even train your ear to tell the difference between one type of match and another. And listen: as sparrows forage for food, they often make a sound like someone trying and failing to strike a match, over and over. Sparrows are usually found at a very human height from the ground, usually six feet or less.
RED HEADED SPARROW BIRD PATCH
Grab a pair of binoculars and take them to the brushiest, scrubbiest, raggediest patch of vegetation in your neighborhood. Once you feel comfortable identifying this species, walk on.ĭickcissel (sparrow-like, but, like the House Sparrow, a “false” sparrow) Sparrow-Spotting The male House Sparrow has a distinctive black throat and bib the female is a much plainer brown. It’s actually more closely related to our finch species! It was introduced from Europe into New York’s Central Park in 1864, and since then has spread like wildfire around the continent, taking up residence in chimneys, gutters, window-sills, and attics, just to name a few. At least not our North American Emberizidae. Prepare yourself for this shocking news, but the House Sparrow is not related to our other sparrows. The first sparrow you are likely to see, if you live in a town, city, village, suburb, or metropolis, is probably the famous (and infamous) House Sparrow. If you can find a neglected patch of public park, or a brushy hedgerow beside an open field, you’re in sparrow country. Chances are, wherever you live, in late October you may well have five to seven different species of sparrow hanging out within a five-minute walk of your back porch. In the fall, they are migrating past us by the thousands. Sparrows’ great redeeming virtue is their ubiquity, if not their visibility. Backyard birders often dismiss them out of hand as “ LBJs,” or “Little Brown Jobs.” Where does one begin?īlack-throated Sparrow (one of our most deserty sparrows) The House Sparrow Most are some shade of brown, with streaky camouflage on the back or breast, and their love of brambly shadows doesn’t make identification any easier. Scratching in the leaf litter or peeking out of dense grasses, sparrows are shy and blend in beautifully with their surroundings. What the sparrow has going for it is exactly what people have against it. White-throated Sparrow (one of our most common sparrows) Little Brown Jobs
RED HEADED SPARROW BIRD PLUS
This family of birds, known as the Emberizidae, is native to all fifty American states, plus thirteen Canadian provinces and territories, yet has never had a representative elected to the office of State Bird or Provincial Emblem. There’s no bird more unassuming, more adaptable, more democratic than the sparrow. It eats spiders in the Atlantic salt-marshes, cinquefoil buds on the Alaskan tundra, and seeds from the Mojave prickly pear. Its song is a jingling trill, a gasp, a gurgle, a wheeze, a buzz. It lives in our gravel pits, our power-line cuts, our bus terminals, our coal mines.
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