SOME SPARROW SONGS

      In May, when I was in sixth grade, my class went on a field trip to Valley Forge in Pennsylvania.  And when I stepped from the bus at that national park, I heard the sweet, accelerating trills of a few birds that I thought, at that time, were bluebirds coming from overgrown, weedy fields.  Later, when I learned bird songs better, I realized those lovely trills were uttered by birds called field sparrows.

     Several kinds of sparrows nest in southeastern Pennsylvania, and the males of each kind sing beautiful songs to proclaim nesting territories, and attract mates to those spots to raise young.  Each of those lovely songs adds to the beauty and intrigue of the habitat each sparrow nests in.  And those songs add to the excitements and joys of spring in this my home area.  People are far more likely to hear these camouflaged sparrows, than see them in the dense shelter they hide in.

     Parents of all the following sparrow species feed invertebrates and seeds to their young in their open-cup, twig and dried-grass nurseries.  But each reproducing species has its own niche, which reduces competition for food among its sparrow relatives.      

     Each appealing song of field sparrows begins with a few slow notes, quickly followed by an accelerating, musical trill for a few seconds.  Field sparrows are plain-brown, with darker streaking on top.  And each sparrow has a lovely, pink beak that readily identifies this species in overgrown meadows where it places its dead-grass cradle on a sheltering crotch of a bush.

     Chipping sparrows also sing appealing trills, but without the slow, introductory notes at the start.  Chippers often build their dried-grass nurseries in the densely-needled boughs of young spruce and arborvitae trees planted on many suburban lawns.  Chippers can be identified by the rusty stripe on each one's head, the black streak feathering "through" each eye and a white stripe over each eye. 

     Song sparrows are common, permanent residents in many lawns and fields in southeastern Pennsylvania.  They are light-gray all over, and heavily streaked in black all over.  Males of this species sing lovely, piping tunes of various notes as early in the year as warm afternoons in mid-February.  Song sparrows place their twig and dead-grass nurseries in densely-leafed shrubbery. 

     Swamp sparrows live sparingly, but permanently, in swampy thickets.  They sing a lovely, loose, sweet trill that identifies them, usually before they are seen among the dense vegetation they live and nest in.  This species is a rusty, streaked sparrow with a gray chest and rusty cap.  

     Savannah sparrows are a gray, blackly-streaked, meadow and field species that nest on the ground among tall grass in meadows and the grassy edges of open fields.  Their songs are a buzzy "zit, zit zit- zeeeeee-zaaaaaa".  As with most sparrows, they are generally heard before they are seen. 

     These sparrows, and most species of their kind, are heard far more often than they are seen.  But their simple songs are beautiful, and exciting to hear in each species' niche.  Listen and watch for these sparrow species when in meadows and fields of farmland during summer.