Bird Directory

Song Sparrow

Click on picture to hear bird sounds.

Bird Name: Song Sparrow

Field Marks: This appropriately named bird has a round body with short wings and a long tail. Its feet and legs are slightly heavy. This cute bird has a brown head and grayish brown eyebrows. Look for dark brown stripes on its back and white underparts.

Feeder Food: Mixed seeds

Natural Food: Seeds, insects, insect larvae, berries

Behavior: Look for the Song Sparrow in shrubbery moving its tail up and down. It is a quick, shy bird and there won't be many around your feeder. The ones who do come will consider it part of their territory and defend it from other birds. The female sings only during nesting season.

Song: sweet, sweet, towhee, tritritritri

Pictures and sounds were reproduced by permission.

Sources:

Alden, Peter and Brian Cassie, National Audubon Society Feild Guide To New England, New York: Alfred A.Knopf, 1998.

Dawe, Neil and Karen, The Bird Book, New York: Workman Publishing, 1988.

Elliott, Lang, Know Your Bird Sounds (cassette), Minocqua, WI: NorthWord Press, Inc., 1994.

Forbush, Edward Howe, Birds of Massachusetts, Norwood, Massachusetts: Norwood Press, 1929.

Reed, Chester R., Bird Guide: Land Birds East of the Rockies, Garden City, New York: Doubleday & Company, Inc., 1951.

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