It’s that time of year when this Simon & Garfunkel lyric pops into my head, and my eyes start combing the backyard in search of newly arrived sparrow visitors—here in the Midwest, that means dark-eyed juncos, white-throated sparrows, and song sparrows for the most part, with the occasional white-crowned sparrow, eastern towhee, and even a […]
Sparrows on the Move—Maybe to Your Backyard! Read More »
Look for The Savannah sparrow is a small bird with a grayish-brown upperparts with crisp, dark streaks. It has white underparts with narrow, dark streaks on the breast and flanks. It resembles the song sparrow, and sometimes sports a central dark dot on the breast. It has a short tail, though, a smaller, pinkish bill
Look For Harris’s sparrow is our largest sparrow (7 ½ inches in length), and its combination of a black face and pink bill (in adult birds) makes it relatively easy to identify. First-winter birds have a pale brown head and a white throat. Listen For If you want to hear a Harris’s sparrow sing, you’ll
Look For An adult golden-crowned sparrow has a golden crown stripe surrounded by black. Slightly larger than, but very similar to, the white-crowned sparrow, the golden is 7 ¼ inches in length. Sub-adult golden-crowned sparrows can be identified by their plain gray face and grayish bill. Immature birds may have only a hint of the
Golden-crowned Sparrow Read More »
