Chipping Sparrow

Spizella passerina

Order PASSERIFORMES - Family EMBERIZIDAE

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1. Cool Facts
2. Description
3. Similar Species
4. Sound
5. Range
6. Habitat
7. Food
8. Behavior
9. Reproduction
10. Conservation Status
11. Other Names

A common small sparrow of yards, gardens, and forest openings, the Chipping Sparrow is probably best known for its dry, trilling song. One of the smallest sparrows, it commonly nests in ornamental evergreens.

Cool Facts

• Instead of having simple molts like most birds and changing its body feathers once or twice a year, the Chipping Sparrow may change the feathers of its face and throat up to six times in one year. The rest of the body feathers are only replaced once or twice in the same period.

• The nest of the Chipping Sparrow is of such flimsy construction that light can be seen through it. It probably provides little insulation for the eggs and young.

Description

• Size: 12-14 cm (5-6 in)
• Wingspan: 19-21 cm (7-8 in)
• Weight: 11-15 g (0.39-0.53 ounces)

• Small sparrow.
• Breast unmarked.
• Rufous crown.
• White line above eye.
• Black stripe through eye.

Breeding adult (Alternate Plumage): Cap chestnut brown; black near bill. White stripe above eye. Black stripe through eye, reaching the bill. Unstreaked gray chest blending into white belly. Neck and cheeks gray. Throat white. Back brown with black streaks. Small, conical black bill. Two whitish wing bars. Tail slim and slightly forked. Rump gray. Forehead has small white spot above bill.
Winter adult (Basic Plumage): Duller. Crown streaked dark brown, often with a cream-colored stripe down the middle. Eyestripe dull and cream or light tan, but not white. Cheeks brownish. Bill dusky with pale base. Wingbars faint and buffy.

Sex Differences

Sexes appear similar; female averages duller, often with crown flecked with dark brown.

Immature

Juvenile has warm cinnamon color on back and top of head, fine streaks across chest, faint face pattern with indistinct dark eyeline. First winter bird similar to adult nonbreeding, but face pattern is less distinct, crown more heavily streaked with dark brown, rump streaked with cinnamon turning gray.

Similar Species

• American Tree Sparrow larger, with dark central chest spot, frosty white wingbars and edges to wing feathers, and a rusty (not black) stripe through the eye. Click here for more on distinguishing these two species.
• Clay-colored Sparrow resembles winter and immature Chipping Sparrow. Winter clay-colored has distinct crown stripe, distinct facial markings including a strong mustache (malar stripe), a light buffy facial patch with a dark border, and pale lores. Chipping Sparrow usually has dark lores, making the eyestripe continuous from back of head, through eye, to bill.
• Winter Brewer's Sparrow is similar, but has less distinct facial markings and less cinnamon on the back than chipping.

Sound

Song a long mechanical trill.

»listen to songs of this species

Range

Summer Range

Breeds from very eastern Alaska through Canada, southward to southern United States and into Mexico and Central America. Absent from southern Great Plains and Florida.

Winter Range

Winters in Mexico, Central America, and the southern tier of the United States.

Habitat

• Breeds in open woodlands with grass, along river and lake shorelines, orchards, farms, and in urban and suburban parks.
• Winters in similar areas.

Food

Grass and other small seeds, small fruits, and insects.

Behavior

Foraging

Forages primarily on ground. Comes to bird feeders.

Reproduction

Nest Type

Nest a loosely woven open cup of rootlets, grasses, and other fine materials. Placed in small tree or shrub, usually a conifer.

Egg Description

Color: Pale blue with sparse dark blotches.

Size: 16.0-18.5 mm x 12.3-13.7 mm
(0.6-0.7 x 0.5-0.55 in.)

Incubation period: 10-15 days.

Clutch Size

Usually 4 eggs. Range: 2-7.

Condition at Hatching

Helpless with only tufts of down.
Chicks fledge in 9-10 days.

Conservation Status

The Chipping Sparrow has benefited from the modification of North America over the last several hundred years; populations appear healthy.

Other Names

Bruant familier, Pinson familier (French)
Gorrión ceja blanca, Chimbito comun (Spanish)

Sources used to construct this page:

Middleton, A. L. A. 1998. Chipping Sparrow (Spizella passerina). In The Birds of North America, No. 334 (A. Poole and F. Gill, eds.). The Birds of North America, Inc., Philadelphia, PA.