For the Birds: Ground-loving Song Sparrows

Song Sparrow on alert between bushes.
Photo by Christine Southwick

By Christine Southwick

The summer Dark-eyed Juncos have finished reproducing and have mostly moved on. 

Leaves are starting to drop, creating visual spaces under bushes and shrubs. 

Now you can see small brown chunky birds moving about on the ground eating insects and seeds which help keep your yards healthy. 

What are these feathery skulkers?

Song Sparrow showing back and side coloring.
Photo by Christine Southwick

There are 29 sub-species in the US. 

Our local Song Sparrows are large-ish chunky dark sparrows, with a long tail that they pump while eating and while flying low from one shrub to the next cover. 

Their head is streaked with rich browns and light grays between, with a distinct eyeline running from the bill to the shoulders. 

The back and shoulders are streaked, and the breast usually has a dark center.

They mostly build their nests on the ground hidden in grasses, ferns or shrubs, sometimes even low branches. 

Like most ground birds, they do not use nest boxes. They can have several broods, if a brood is destroyed, each with usually 3-6 blue-green eggs. 

Cats are their main predators. Hawks, owls, raccoons, coyotes and dogs also are a danger.

Song Sparrow eating one of its favorite meals.
Photo by Elaine Chuang

Song Sparrows will often sing all year long, even the females may occasionally sing. 

Males sing to proclaim their territory and attract a mate. Juvie males learn their songs by listening to their neighborhood male birds, so birds in different regions have variations of the basic Song Sparrow melodies.

If you have native plants, shrubs and bushes, maybe a little Himalayan Blackberries in your yard, then you undoubtedly have Song Sparrows. 

Considered habitat generalists, about the only place you won’t find them is within forests. 

They eat weevils, beetles, caterpillars, dragonflies, craneflies, and spiders, plus seeds and berries like blackberries, serviceberries, thistle berries and raspberries.

Song Sparrow on alert on feeder.
Photo by Christine Southwick

Song Sparrows gladly drink and bathe in bird baths—an easy way to support and to view these fun birds.

Keep some of your leaves under bushes, shrubs, and trees—they provide hiding places for delectable bird bug-meals, nourish the soil and protect plants from cold all at the same time.

Though some people lump them with other LBBs, (Little Brown Birds), our song sparrows can cheer up a drab winter day when they start belting out a song often at the top of a bush just a few feet from where you are standing drinking your morning coffee.

Previous For the Birds columns can be seen here.