Song Sparrow

About the Song Sparrow

The Song Sparrow is the classic streaky brown sparrow - heavy brown streaking on a grayish breast converging into a central dark spot, broad gray eyebrow, and a long rounded tail pumped in flight. Across North America it varies more than almost any other songbird, but the Texas winter birds fit this standard pattern.

It keeps low in brushy, usually damp cover, scratching for seeds and insects, and announces itself with a hard "chimp" call from inside a thicket. The song - three short clear notes followed by a buzzy jumble - is one of the first bird songs many people learn.

In Texas the Song Sparrow is a winter visitor, common from October through March in weedy wet edges, streamsides, and brush piles across most of the state, thinning out toward the southern tip.