SPARROW AND FINCH SUBURBAN NESTERS

     Five kinds of seed-eating birds, including permanent resident northern cardinals, song sparrows,  American goldfinches and house finches, and summering chipping sparrows, annually raise young in human-made, suburban lawns in southeastern Pennsylvania, adding more beauty and wildness to those lawns.  All these species of small birds are adaptable, common, and have attractive feathering.  And the resident birds dine at bird feeders in winter and spend winter nights huddled in sheltering bushes and young spruce and arborvitae trees that block cold winds. 

     Well-known by many people, northern cardinals are the most obvious of these related species.  Males are red and often loudly chant "what cheer, what cheer, what cheer" from tree tops as early as early February in this area, to proclaim nesting territory and attract a mate for rearing offspring.  

     Female cardinals are buffy-brown all over, except for some red feathers in their wings, tails and raised tufts of feathers on their heads.  They make twig and grass cradles in protecting shrubbery.  Both parents feed invertebrates to their young in their nurseries.

     Song sparrows are handsome in a camouflaged way: They are brown, with black streaking all over.  Like cardinals, they live and nest in dense shrubbery.  And like male cardinals, male song sparrows sing lovely, little ditties as early as February.  Their mates create grass nurseries in densely-growing bushes.       American goldfinch males are bright-yellow, with black wings, tails and jaunty, black caps set on their foreheads.  Their mates are olive, which camouflages them.

     Goldfinches begin nesting in July when thistles go to seed.  These birds use thistle fluff to line their, pretty and petite nests in bushes and sapling trees, and they feed thistle seeds to their young in their nests.    

     Both genders of house finches are gray, with darker streaks all over.  And adult males also have much pink in their feathering.  Males of this species also begin singing early in February.  Their lively actions and songs, and pretty feathering add much liveliness to suburban lawns.  

     House finches build nurseries of grass in young spruces and arborvitae, and in any protective crevice on buildings.  They feed insects to their young in their cradles.    

     The attractive chipping sparrows arrive here around the middle of April to raise young.  Both genders have a rufous-red stripe on their crowns, a black streak "through" each eye and a white stripe over each eye.           

     Male chippers sing long, musical trills that are so characteristic of younger lawns.  These lovely sparrows make nests of fine grass and animal hair in shrubbery and young arborvitae trees.  They feed invertebrates to their chicks in their nurseries.       

     All these suburban-nesting, seed-eating birds consume weed and grass seeds in winter, and they dine at bird feeders, too.  But the chippers do so farther south than southeastern Pennsylvania. 

     And all these adaptable, suburban-nesters add life and beauty to lawns, four kinds of them the year around.  They help make those lawns more interesting to watch.