Swamp Sparrow

About the Swamp Sparrow

The Swamp Sparrow is the richest-colored of the wintering sparrows that slip into Texas wetlands each fall -- rusty wings, a gray face and nape, a crisp white throat, and a dusky wash across a plain gray breast. It is a subtle beauty, the kind of bird that looks brown at a glance and glows once you actually put a binocular on it.

True to the name, this sparrow sticks to wet places: cattail edges, flooded brush, the damp margins of ponds and creeks. It even has longer legs than its relatives, an adaptation for wading at the waterline, and will pick insects right off the surface of the water. In winter they are skulkers, announcing themselves with a hard metallic chip from deep in the vegetation.

They breed across the marshes of Canada and the northeastern states and spend the winter across the eastern half of Texas. This bird was working the wet edge of Lake Creek Trail in Williamson County in early March 2023, just weeks before heading north.

Pishing works better on Swamp Sparrows than on almost anything else in the marsh -- a few seconds of squeaking usually pulls one up a cattail stem for a look. Be ready; the look rarely lasts long.