Song sparrow12/29/2023 ![]() Song Sparrows are widespread and common across most of the continent, but populations have declined by about 27% between 19, according to the North American Breeding Bird Survey. Often flies only short distances between perches or to cover, characteristically pumping the tail downward as it flies. ![]() Flight is direct and low on broad, rounded wings. In fall, juvenile Song Sparrows may band together in loose flocks around berry trees or water sources. Song Sparrows are primarily monogamous, but up to 20 percent of all Song Sparrows sire young with multiple mates each breeding season. ![]() Courting birds fly together, fluttering their wings, with tails cocked up and legs dangling. Song Sparrows stay low and forage secretively, but males come to exposed perches, including limbs of small trees, to sing. Song Sparrows walk or hop on the ground and flit or hop through branches, grass, and weeds. Naked with sparse blackish down, eyes closed, clumsy. Nesting Factsīlue, blue-green, or gray-green spotted with brown, red-brown, or lilac. The finished nest is 4-8 inches across (2-2.5 inches for the inside of the cup), and 2.5-4 inches deep. It’s a simple, sturdy cup made of loose grasses, weeds, and bark on the outsides, then lined more tidily with grasses, rootlets, and animal hair. The female builds the nest, working mainly during the morning. Not afraid of human habitation, Song Sparrows may nest close to houses, in flower beds. Nest sites are usually hidden in grasses or weeds, sometimes placed on the ground and occasionally as high as 15 feet often near water. Song Sparrow pairs search for nest sites together. In British Columbia, Song Sparrows have even been observed picking at the droppings of Glaucous-winged Gulls. Food types vary greatly depending on what’s common across the Song Sparrow’s extensive range. Plant foods include buckwheat, ragweed, clover, sunflower, wheat, rice, blackberries, blueberries, strawberries, raspberries, mulberries, and wild cherries. Prey include weevils, leaf beetles, ground beetles, caterpillars, dragonflies, grasshoppers, midges, craneflies, spiders, snails, and earthworms. Song Sparrows eat many insects and other invertebrates in the summer, as well as seeds and fruits all year round. You may also find Song Sparrows in deciduous or mixed woodlands. Song Sparrows are found in an enormous variety of open habitats, including tidal marshes, arctic grasslands, desert scrub, pinyon pine forests, aspen parklands, prairie shelterbelts, Pacific rain forest, chaparral, agricultural fields, overgrown pastures, freshwater marsh and lake edges, forest edges, and suburbs.
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