Chipping Sparrow    Spizella passerina

Migratory Status: Neotropical migrant

PIF Population Estimate: 89 000 000

Percent of western hemisphere population breeding in boreal forest: <25%

BAM Effective Detection Radius (m) : 70.85

PIF Maximum Detection Distance (m) : 125

Canadian BBS Population trend: -0.6 (-1.1 to 0.0)

Life History

The Chipping Sparrow to become one of North America’s most common and widely distributed songbirds, because it prefers habitats that combine open areas (i.e., fields, grasslands, glades) with structurally complex features (i.e., shrubs and trees), both of which are readily found in backyards and residential areas across the continent. Given this affinity for urban settings, the species’ song is easily recognized by the backyard birder; it is a uniformly pitched trill of rapid ‘tssips’.

Male Chipping Sparrows in breeding plumage are an attractive, if simply patterned, ‘brown’ bird. Their chestnut brown crown, unstreaked gray breast, belly and flanks, black eye-stripe, and white ‘eyebrow’ (supercilliary line) easily distinguish them from other sparrows. Females are similar to males but have a duller overall appearance. The species has a wide distribution and there is considerable geographic variation in appearance, with western populations being slightly larger and paler than eastern ones, and southern populations being brighter overall.

Chipping Sparrows prefer open woodlands and forest edge habitats. The northern extent of the breeding range goes from Alaska, eastward across Canada, and follows the tree line to Newfoundland and Labrador. Southward, the breeding range extends throughout the United States, excluding the Great Plains and Florida, into Mexico and Central America. Winter habitats are similar to breeding habitats. The winter range extends from the southern United States into Mexico and Central America.

The Chipping Sparrow generally feeds on the ground, scratching the surface looking for grass seeds, and will also forage in low shrubs and supplement its diet with small fruits and insects. During migration, it can be found feeding in single species flocks of up to 50 birds. On wintering grounds, Chipping Sparrows often join a mixed-species flock, which suggests that this species is not territorial in the winter.

Reference(s)

Middleton, A. L. 1998. Chipping Sparrow (Spizella passerina), The Birds of North America Online, . A. Poole, Ed. Ithaca: Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology; Retrieved from The Birds of North America Online database: http://bna.birds.cornell.edu/bna/species/334