Chipping Sparrow – May
Chipping Sparrow
Spizella passerina
Content and photos by James Giroux
It’s sparrow season in Central Texas! And topping the list of one of our most common sparrows is the diminutive Chipping Sparrow. Weighing in at only .4 ounces, it is half the size of a White-crowned Sparrow (1 ounce). You can often see these two species together at bird feeders, and the size difference is very dramatic. In addition to being very common, Chipping Sparrows are one of the easier IDs among the sparrows. The best field marks are the rufous cap, the light brown layer below the cap, and the black eye line that goes all the way from the back of the head to the beak. The breast has no streaks (Savannah, Song and Vesper all have streaky breasts).
Adult non-breeding – January
Another clue for IDing Chipping Sparrows is flock size. Very few other sparrow species in our area hang out together in flock sizes greater than about 7 or 8. For Chipping Sparrows, 7 or 8 is a small flock. They can often be seen in groups of a dozen, and it is not uncommon to see 20 or more in a flock.
One note of caution on ID is that the crown of the first-winter Chipping Sparrow is more brown than reddish. The coloring on the first-winter bird overall is more muted and pale. The broken eye ring however, is slightly more pronounced. See below to compare with the full adult above.
First winter – November
The first-winter bird can look a lot like a Clay-colored Sparrow in overall coloring. The differences are subtle, but the clincher is the pale lore on the Clay-colored. Put another way, the eye-line on the Chipping goes all the way through the eye to the beak, whereas on the Clay-colored, the eye-line stops at the back of the eye. Another difference is the jaw stripe. On the Clay-colored it is a much brighter white, and has more contrast to the border lines than on the Chipping. See Clay-colored below for comparison.
Clay-colored Sparrow – April
The Chipping Sparrow is one of the most widespread sparrow species in the U.S., covering the entire lower 48 states plus Alaska. It is one of seven sparrow species that breeds in Central Texas. The others are Field, Lark, Rufous-crowned, Black-throated, Grasshopper, and Canyon Towhee.
Chipping Sparrows can be found almost anywhere in the Austin area where there are woodland edges. They readily come to bird feeders. They are more common in winter, but in the spring and early summer you can hear them “singing” their loud trilling songs.
Chipping Sparrow – January (unusually bright red for the non-breeding season)
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