Learn what a song sparrow looks like and sounds like. Plus learn about their nests and eggs, range map and more.
How to Identify a Song Sparrow
Updated on Nov. 19, 2024
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What Does a Song Sparrow Look Like?
A song sparrow is coarsely streaked, dark on back and light underneath, with streaks on its sides that join to form a central breast spot. Its crown is brown with a narrow stripe, and a broader grayish stripe over each eye.
Birding experts Kenn and Kimberly Kaufman write, “These sparrows molt into a fresh plumage in fall, with brand-new feathers, so their markings are sharper from fall to early spring. By summer, after the adult birds have worked hard to raise their young, the feathers look more worn and frayed, and the browns may have faded to a more reddish brown. Typical markings include the face pattern, with its bold ‘whisker mark’ at the edge of the throat.”
Did you know: Song sparrows can be paler, darker, redder, grayer, larger or smaller, depending on your location. Ornithologists recognize dozens of subspecies of these adaptable birds.
Learn how to identify a chipping sparrow.
Song Sparrow Facts
- Scientific Name: Melospiza melodia
- Family: Sparrow
- Length: 5-1/2 to 7 inches
- Wingspan: 8-1/4 inches
Meet the white-crowned sparrow and white-throated sparrow.
Nest and Eggs
This bird constructs a well-hidden ground or low nest of grasses, weed stems, leaves and bark fibers lined with finer materials. The three to five eggs laid inside are a dark-splotched greenish white.
Learn how to identify a Lincoln’s sparrow.
What Does a Song Sparrow Eat?
In fall and winter, song sparrows eat small weed and grass seeds. In summer, these small birds eat lots of insects. Attract them to a ground-level tray feeder with bird seed, located near a brush pile.
Sunflowers also lure songbirds, like the song sparrow, to your backyard.
Follow these tips if you’d like to feed more native sparrows in your yard.
Song and Call
Listen for three clear notes of “sweet, sweet, sweet” followed by shorter notes and a trill. Its distinctive call note is “chimp.” Because they learn the structure of their music from others, local “dialects” are commonly heard. They are one of the top songbirds in America with the prettiest songs.
Males can sing as many as 20 different songs while defending territories and courting females. Some studies indicate that a female selects her mate based in part on his ability to croon new songs.
Hear the sound of the song sparrow’s song.
Bird songs provided by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology.
Range Map and Habitat
These birds like low, open, weedy or brushy areas around farms and residential areas.
Range maps provided by Kaufman Field Guides, the official field guide of Birds & Blooms.
Next, learn about house sparrows, one of the least wanted backyard birds.
About the Experts
Kenn and Kimberly Kaufman are the official bird experts for Birds & Blooms. They are the creators of the Kaufman Field Guide series and they lead birding trips all over the world.
