Song Sparrow

The Song Sparrow is common and widespread in open, shrubby or wet areas and is quite at home in urban settings. It can often be seen hopping around in the grass at the edges of lawns and field margins and it is one of the first species that you should suspect if you see a streaky sparrow in an open, brushy or marshy habitat. 24 diagnosable subspecies (52 named) breed from Newfoundland to the Aleutians of Alaska and south to central Mexico. Year round and winter ranges are in BC, the US and northern Mexico.

Adult Male (spring/summer)

Gray median crown stripe, brown lateral crown stripe, gray supercilium, brown eyeline, brownish gray auricular, brown subauricular stripe, buffy white submoustachial stripe, broad brown malar stripe and white chin and throat. The eye is dark. Breast and flanks are buffy gray with brown streaks, belly white with sparse brown stripes and undertail coverts buffy with brown streaks. Back, rump, and uppertail coverts are gray with brown streaks. Wings and tail are brown with gray and dark edging.

Adult Female (spring/summer)

Similar to adult male.

Juvenile

Juvenile Pacific Northwest birds are plain brown above and streaked below, larger and darker than Eastern birds with rather long tails.

General:

Medium sized sparrow with a short, stout bill, a long, rounded tail and short, broad wings. Length: 12-17cm. Wing: 18-24cm. Weight: 12-53grams.

Behaviour:

Song sparrows forage on the ground, in shrubs and in very shallow water. They can be seen flitting and hopping through dense, low vegetation. Flights are short and are characterized by a downward pumping of the tail. They stay low in vegetation and forage secretively. However, males sing from exposed perches, such as the tops of shrubs or small trees. Diet consists of seeds and fruits and is supplemented by many kinds of invertebrates.

Habitat:

Song sparrows are found in a variety of open habitats, including brushy areas, agricultural areas, overgrown pastures, parkland, hedgerows and gardens. They are often found near water and can be found at forest edges and in deciduous or mixed woodlands.

Information:

Song sparrows are year round residents and can be found throughout most of North America. They show extensive regional variation and have the most numerous subspecies in North America, with 52 varieties described. Song sparrows of the Pacific Northwest tend to be darker and more streaked, while those of the desert southwest tend to be lighter and paler overall. Despite this large variation in colouration, genetic differences are small. Song sparrows are usually monogamous and generally lay one clutch of 1-6 blue-bluish green with red-brown spotted eggs per year. Male song sparrows attract a mate and defend its territory by singing. The song is melodious, crisp and clear, consisting of trills and clear notes, usually starting with several short notes, followed by one long trill in the middle of the song. Males can learn up to 20 different tunes and hundreds of variations of each tune. Females are attracted to males that show the ability to learn many different variants of their song from their neighbours. Females are also able to distinguish the songs of their mate from other males and the songs of neighbouring birds from those from more distant areas. A female shows a distinct preference for the song of her mate, followed by the song of neighbours. She is least interested in songs sung by strangers in the area.

Similar species:

Conservation Status:

Listed as Least Concern and is common and widespread.

Capture Rates:

The Song Sparrow is a year round resident of Colony Farm. Capture rates peak during winter months when non-breeding birds forage throughout the banding area.

Molt Summary:

PF: HY partial-incomplete; PB: AHY complete; PA absent
Preformative molt is variable , including all med and gr covs, the innermost 1 – 6 ss, and 0 to all 12 rects.
Also the preformative molt sometimes can be eccentric, with the outermost 1 – 3 ss (among s1 – s3) and the innermost 1 – 3 pp (among p1 – p3) also can be replaced, and probably all primaries and secondaries rarely can be replaced in a small proportion of individuals.

This HY in August is completing its preformative molt replacing lesser, median and greater coverts, all 3 alula feathers (in sheath) and all 3 tertials (red arrows). Notice the narrow, tapered and abraded outer primary coverts contrasting with the fresher and dusky-centred greater coverts.

Song Sparrows are among the Emberizid family which often show an alula covert (A1) molt limit. This can often be very subtle but in the photos below the contrast between the molted alula covert (A1) and main lower alula feathers (A2, A3) can be clearly seen. (red arrows).

This SY in February has replaced lesser, median and greater coverts and the two innermost tertials (S8 & S9), molt limits shown between the greater alula covert (A1) and lower main alula feather (A2), the outer greater covert and innermost primary covert and between S7 and S8 (red arrows).

Notice again the narrow, tapered and abraded outer primary coverts and main alula feathers contrasting with the fresher and dusky-centred greater coverts.

A similar pattern, this SY also in February has replaced lesser, median and greater coverts and the two innermost tertials (S8 & S9), molt limits shown between the greater alula covert (A1) and lower main alula feather (A2), the outer greater covert and innermost primary covert and between S7 and S8 (red arrows).

Notice again the narrow, tapered and abraded outer primary coverts and main alula feathers contrasting with the fresher and dusky-centred greater coverts.

This SY in March has also replaced lesser, median and greater coverts and the two innermost tertials (S8 & S9), molt limits again shown between the greater alula covert (A1) and lower main alula feather (A2), the outer greater covert and innermost primary covert and between S7 and S8 (red arrows).

Notice again the narrow, tapered and abraded outer primary coverts and main alula feathers contrasting with the fresher and dusky-centred greater coverts.

Primary coverts are always retained juvenal feathers in the preformative molt in this species and the two super-macro shots below show the contrast between them and the replaced greater coverts. Notice the appearance of the PCs – the very washed out, brown appearance – the shafts or rachis being browner than the molted GCs with no sheen to the feathers – overall they are simply much duller feathers.
These photos also highlight the importance of the key greater alula covert (A1) and clearly show the contrast between it and the lower main alula feathers. Note how the rachis of the molted alula covert is again darker than on the adjacent retained lower main juvenal alula feathers.

Iris colour is also helpful in determining age in Song Sparrows being dull brownish through the winter in HY/SY birds like this SY in February and brighter chestnut brown in adults although care should be taken with iris colour as some adults retain brownish irises.

Tail shape is helpful in ageing many species being tapered and more abraded on retained juvenal feathers in first year birds (HY/SY) and broad and truncate with a corner to the inner web and relatively fresh in adults (AHY/ASY). The outer retrices (R4-R6) generally show the greatest age specific differences.

However, it is important not to use tail shape alone as it is generally not very reliable because of a) individual variation and b) the possibility of accidental loss and replacement (adventitious molt). For this reason and the fact that tail feathers are frequently lost and replaced between normal molts tail feather shape must be used with great caution by banders, and only with other supporting characters (e.g., molt limits), when determining the ages of birds in hand. This is especially true for Song Sparrows which can show uniformly truncate rectrices in first year (HY/SY) birds.

This SY in January is showing quite truncate but extremely worn rectrices.

Growth bars are faint lines in the tail which illustrate the normal growth of feathers, typically forming every 24 hours as the feather grows. Diurnal and nocturnal metabolic differences result in variation in the pigment deposited during the day vs. that deposited at night, resulting in subtle growth bars across the feather that can be seen here – the dark bars represent the pigment deposited during the day and the light bars the pigment deposited during the night. So, each light and dark bar combined represents 24 hours of growth of the feather.

It’s very important not to confuse growth bars with fault bars which are caused by nutritional stress and can be seen in the second photo below.

This SY in June is showing showing conspicuous growth bars across the tail. These so called ‘fault bars’ are the result of environmental or nutritional stress that the bird encountered while it was growing in the feathers. Groups of feathers on hatch year birds are grown concurrently so a stress that results in a fault bar on the feathers is distributed in an even line as in the photo below right. Adult feathers are sequentially grown so a fault line on the feathers is normally distributed in an uneven line.

Fault bars are caused when actively growing feathers cease to grow resulting in a dark line across the feathers. Young birds begin to grow their rectrices as nestlings and growth continues after fledgling. At this time the birds are dependent on their parents for their nutrition (the food required for the energy and proteins necessary for feather synthesis) but these adults are typically not only feeding themselves but also several hungry fledglings. This is a tremendously energetically taxing time for adults often resulting in undernourished young and the presence of fault bars.

Fault bars can be useful as an ageing criterion but banders should be aware that adults do sometimes lose all of their tail feathers at once accidentally. When such accidentally lost feathers are regrown adventitiously (outside the normal molt cycle), it is not unusual for such adult replacement rectrices to have prominent fault bars like those more often seen in juveniles and first year birds.

This AHY in August is in the midst of its definitive adult prebasic molt where all body and flight feathers will be replaced. Primaries are replaced distally away from the birds body with the innermost primaries in sheath. The tertials have already been replaced with outermost secondaries (not visible) in sheath and the innermost secondaries still to be replaced. S6 (red arrow) is normally the last flight feather replaced.

This AHY also in August is in the final stages of its definitive adult prebasic molt with the outermost primaries in sheath and P9 (red arrow) still to be replaced. Notice in adult prebasic molts that the alula are among the last feathers replaced on the wing and have still to be replaced here allowing some birds in heavy prebasic molt like this to still be aged SY/ASY based on the contrast between the molted greater alula covert (A1) and main alula feathers (A2 & A3).