A Bird In Hand: the Song Sparrow

I have three sons and, now, five grandchildren. People will ask me, which is my favorite? All of them, I respond!

I can honestly state that I’ve never favored one of my children over the other; and, perhaps even more importantly, favored a grandchild. I love ‘em all and couldn’t imagine life missing any one of them. But, I do have a favorite bird. And perhaps it is auspicious to inaugurate this new column — A Bird In Hand — with that favorite.

Let me introduce to you the Song Sparrow.

Song Sparrows are probably a familiar bird to you, even if you’ve never actually bothered or attempted to identify it.

They’re that bird in your backyard, a regular to your feeder, that skitters about in short flights, tail a’pumping, as it dodges from shrub to feeder and back again. They don’t seem to sit still until spring, when the male begins establishing his breeding territory by singing his distinctive song. More on that later.

So how can one tell a Song Sparrow from any other sparrow? To start, they are, well, sparrow-sized. That may sound obvious, but stating bird sizes in inches and ounces has no meaning in the field. It is much better to reference bird sizes in comparison to common species, such as robin-sized or pigeon-sized, etc. The Song Sparrow is obviously a sparrow, but sits on the larger end of the continuum. Bird guides will describe the species as “rotund” or “plump” — I call them “fatties.” But I’m sure that’s because they’re big boned. Undoubtedly.

So, you got this big sparrow in your backyard. What else do you need to know? The Song sparrow is not boldly marked, but to me that is part of their allure. Like so many other similar “little brown jobs” (as they say in the biz), they’re colored in browns, grays, and whites.

But never boldly. What you need to keep in mind are what birders call “field marks,” that is, colorations, feather patterns, or other physical attributes that are specific to a bird species. In the case of the Song Sparrow, there is not one sure-fire field mark (called “diagnostic”), but there is a combination of them that helps to positively identify this bird so you can mark it off of your life list.

Brown on top, white underneath with a lot of brown streaking on the breast and sometimes, but not always, the streaking extending to the belly.

Indeed, individual birds might be more gray underneath than white.

The head sports a brown cap and a distinctive gray eye stripe above the eye, with a brown stripe extending rearward from the eye. Also, look for a white fu-mancho-esque mustache at or below the lower mandible (bottom half of the beak). Most of all review that streaking on the breast. Typically, it will sort of cluster into a distinctive, albeit amorphous, big brown spot.

The clincher is the song. This is where it gets tricky. How do I describe a song in words? Tough to do. But the male’s song is distinctive and diagnostic.

My advice is to go online and look for the Song Sparrow’s song at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology.

The Song Sparrow is one of my favorite birds.

It’s a local resident, meaning that in our area it is present all year round, although that may or may not include your backyard. For me, the male’s song is a sure sign of spring. And hopefully, we’ll be hearing it soon!