Swamp Sparrow

Swamp Sparrows provide sweet songs on spring mornings in boreal bogs, sedge swamps, cattail marshes, and wet brushy meadows. Their clear, mellifluous trills resonate through wetlands from central Canada to the eastern United States, where Swamp Sparrows are fairly common but often hidden among aquatic plants. A vivid rusty cap and wings, combined with subtler browns, grays, buff, and black of the body, simultaneously blend with their marshy habitats and make them an attractive sparrow in earth tones.

Adult Male (spring/summer)

Medium sized sparrow with a rounded tail. Gray face and collar with a rusty cap and dark line through the eye. Extensive reddish-brown in wings. Base of the bill is yellow.

Adult Female (spring/summer)

Sexes are similar

Juvenile

Juveniles lack a distinct median crown stripe and have distinct streaking to the underparts. Juv M=F.

General:

13 cm in length Swamp Sparrows look rather dark overall, usually with bright chestnut on wings and back. Gray face contrasts with white throat and reddish cap in summer; crown is much duller in winter, brown with pale central stripe.

Behaviour:

Forages mostly on the ground, especially on wet mud near the water’s edge, and sometimes feeds while wading in very shallow water. Also does some foraging up in marsh vegetation.

Habitat:

Fresh marshes with tussocks, bushes, or cattails; sedgy swamps. Breeds mostly in freshwater marshes with good growth of sedges, grass, or cattails, often with thickets of alder or willow; sometimes in swampy thickets around ponds and rivers. Also breeds locally in salt marshes on middle Atlantic Coast. During migration and winter found mainly in marshes, but also in streamside thickets, rank weedy fields.

Information:

The Swamp Sparrow has longer legs than other members of its genus; this adaptation allows it to wade into shallow water to forage. This species even sometimes sticks its head under water to try to capture aquatic invertebrates.

Similar species: ​

Chipping Sparrow, American Tree Sparrow, Lincoln’s Sparrow

Conservation Status:

Undoubtedly has declined with loss of marsh habitat, but still widespread and common. Localized salt-marsh race on Atlantic Coast could be vulnerable to habitat loss.
IUCN Red List Status: Low Concern

Capture Rates:

A rare winter visitor to Colony Farm with only two individuals banded at the station.

Molt Summary:

PF: HY partial (Jul-Oct). AHY: complete (Jul-Oct).

The PF usually includes all med and gr covs, often 1-3 terts, and occasionally 1-2 central rects. PAs are limited to head feathers.

 

Juvenile Swamp and Song Sparrows can look nearly identical. With practice they can be quickly identified by looking at the difference in their bill morphology. The Swamp Sparrow is identified by the comparatively thinner bill, yellowish gape flanges, and less distinct submalar streak. Once these birds undergo their preformative molt they will be easily distinguishable by their plumage alone.
In all plumages, Swamp Sparrows have darker more rust colored back streaking and a muddy white wash on the breast. Lincoln’s Sparrow has buffy wash on the breast and sides and is also very finely streaked.