Everything below is reproduced verbatim from the naturalists who wrote the song sparrow’s record between 1831 and 1929 — Edward Howe Forbush (in two works), John James Audubon, and Elon Howard Eaton — with only this sentence, the headings, short lead-ins, and one reference table added by us.
The Camera Feeder We Use In Our Own Backyard
See Today's PriceThe minstrel of the briar-patch
Song Sparrow! Well named! This is the modest, lowly avian minstrel of the briar-patch — the most persistent singer of them all. He sings day after day; awake or dreaming, he sings in the darkness of night; and, north or south, he sings every month in the year. When the mercury drops below the zero mark or when it approaches 90 degrees, still the song of “Silver-tongue” may be heard at times, ringing, sweet and clear. He is an unquenchable optimist. Nothing seems to discourage or daunt him.
Save this article for later so you don't lose it. Enter your email and I'll send it to you now—plus you'll get my favorite backyard birding tips delivered to your inbox.
“Winter has scarcely begun to relax his icy grasp from the water and to lift his snowy mantle from off the land,” writes Mr. Charles J. Maynard, “when those harbingers of the coming spring, the Song Sparrows, begin to chant their enlivening lay about the homesteads of New England. Loud and cheerily do they sing on the brightest mornings in early March, and when they have once begun nothing seems to daunt their ardor.
No matter how very stormy the weather, daylight always finds them singing. I have heard their song when the wind was blowing a gale, and the little performers were obliged to seek shelter beneath the hedges, and have seen one start to fly when the force of the blast was so great that it fairly swept him into a thicket, where he clung tenaciously to the boughs and, as if to bid defiance to the raging elements, poured forth his liveliest carol.
Rightly has this species been named melodia, for none among our native birds sings so long or so often as the Song Sparrow.”
During the morning chorus of bird song it often sings from six to eight times a minute. A lady who is accustomed to rise in the night and turn on the lights says that when this occurs, a Song Sparrow that nests near-by always begins to sing. Song Sparrows seem fond of music and some show their excitement by singing when a piano is played within hearing.
This is the modest, lowly avian minstrel of the briar-patch — the most persistent singer of them all.
How to know it, and where
The Song Sparrow is known by the large spot in the middle of the striped breast, but several other sparrows show a somewhat similar spot. That on the Song Sparrow is merely a cluster of spots which does not appear in the juvenal bird, and may be absent at times in the adults. I have seen it appear and disappear from time to time as the bird moved about. It is merely an arrangement of spotted feathers.
Eaton, 1914: Description. Prevailing color of the upper parts brown streaked on the back with blackish and more or less edged with gray; a grayish stripe through the middle of the crown; tail rather long and rounded, plain brown; under parts white, spotted and streaked on the breast and side with blackish, these streaks more or less bordered with brown, the spots on the center of the breast confluent into a large blotch of blackish; also on the sides of the throat tending to form conspicuous submalar streaks or triangular spot. Throat very slightly spotted; abdomen plain white; bill brownish.
Forbush’s season: Season in Massachusetts. — Resident. Spring migrants appear in late February or March. Fall migration begins in late August and continues through November.
Our bird likes a well-watered, fertile country where thickets abound. He is normally a lowlander, but will nest in a mountain pasture if there is a “living spring” near-by with its flowing rill. It is now generally believed that birds have descended from reptilian forms of life. If so, the Song Sparrow may well have come from amphibian ancestors, as no land bird seems more fond of water.
Where no other form of bath offers he bathes in wet leaves or wet grass after a night shower, and where there is water in plenty he takes a cold bath every night after sunset, until the water freezes, and he bathes during the day whenever opportunity offers; sometimes on sunny days he lies down after a bath and spreads himself out to dry in the sun.
If on the seashore, a salt water pool does very well for his bath tub. It is interesting to see one after a hard shower striking the twigs with his wings and thus throwing the water over his plumage.
Mr. G. W. Quincy tells me of a bird of this species that learned to come to a window and tap on it when hungry. Whenever he tapped the inmates threw out seeds for him.
Nesting: thrice-built nests and nine eggs
Forbush’s breeding data: Breeding. — Usually on moist land near some swamp, spring, brook or ditch where water is at hand, or near the margin of pond, lake or river, where thickets are near. Nest: Built commonly on ground, usually well concealed under grass-tuft, bush or brush heap, or in bushes, or less commonly in trees; more rarely in hollow logs, hollow trees, nesting boxes, or even in unoccupied buildings; composed chiefly of grasses, weeds, bark, leaves, etc., and lined with finer material, sometimes with rootlets or hair.
Eggs: 3 to 7; .75 to .94 by .55 to .65 in.; from short ovate to long ovate; very variable, light greenish-gray, greenish-white, pinkish-white, bluish-white, etc., sprinkled with fine dots of light or dark reddish-brown over whole surface, often also with blotches of darker brown concentrated somewhat near large end, often with spots of lilac; figured by E. A. Capen in “Oology of New England,” Plate IX, Figs. 10-13.
Dates: May 24 to August 20, Connecticut; April 30 to July 29, Massachusetts; May 20 to July 27, Maine. Incubation: Period 10 to 14 days; by both sexes, female chiefly. Two or three broods yearly, even four in the middle states, and possibly sometimes in southern New England.
Song Sparrows spend much time in the pleasant pastime of courtship. The females seem to be modest and coy. There is considerable rivalry among the males, but their contests appear to be mainly competitions in song and flight. They chase the females and each other about through the air with fluttering wings, often sailing and singing.
Their pursuit seems not to be in earnest, as, notwithstanding the rapid movement of their wings, their progress is slow. Now and then a bird pauses in his flight to sing, supported for an instant on his widespread pinions. Flight-songs also carry them up into the air. Occasionally a battle ensues between two rival males, and sometimes they even roll and tumble in the dust with locked bills and beating wings.
When the pair have mated, nest building requires from five to ten days according to the weather and the industry of the birds. The male devotes himself more to song than to labor. Some males assist the female a little in incubation. Mrs. Elizabeth Burbank tells of a pair, one of which relieved the other on the nest at twelve o’clock noon; the returning bird (probably the female) turned the eggs before settling down on them.
The male stands guard much of the time until the young are hatched, when he takes over his full share of the work of defending, brooding and feeding them. The young remain in the nest from seven to fourteen days, depending on the quantity of nourishment they receive and whether they are disturbed. Like the young of all ground birds they develop quickly, when well fed, and can live in the grass before they are able to fly.
Get our free Hummingbird Attraction Guide! Plus, we'll send you our best tips for attracting more birds to your yard.
When once this sparrow has chosen a home, nothing but death will keep it from the beloved spot. It dodges the dogs and cats, and can hardly be driven away. Once an inexperienced pair built a nest on the ground at the foot of a high tree in my garden. As is so common in such cases a cat got the young.
Then the birds built again in a bush; again the stealthy cat! Twice bereaved, the mated pair grieved for a while and then fashioned a third domicile about twenty feet up in an elm tree among dense “suckers,” where they escaped the notice of their feline enemy and reared their young in triumph.
The usual number of eggs in a Song Sparrow’s nest is from three to five, but rarely six or even seven may be found. Mr. Arthur Harrison sent me a photograph of a nest containing nine eggs, with the following explanation: He found two Song Sparrows building their nests about thirty feet apart on the bank of the Merrimack River, one about six feet above the ordinary summer level of the water, the other about twelve feet above it.
After the nests were built he watched them and found that both females were laying in the upper nest, while the lower was deserted. Apparently the two birds took turns in incubating the eggs, as when the nest was approached time after time, the bird on the nest acted differently at one visit from the one occupying the nest at the next examination.
When the young were hatching there came a deluge of rain, raising the river until the lower nest was submerged. Had there been young in it they would have been drowned. As it was, the four birds continued to feed the young in the upper nest and they brought off safely eight young from the nine eggs.
| Fact | Figure, as printed |
|---|---|
| Eggs | 3–7 (Forbush) |
| Egg size | .75–.94 × .55–.65 in. (Forbush) |
| Egg dates, Massachusetts | April 30 – July 29 (Forbush) |
| Incubation | 10–14 days, both sexes, female chiefly (Forbush) |
| Broods | two or three yearly, even four in the middle states (Forbush) |
| Young per pair per year | fourteen — broods of six, five, and three (Audubon) |
| Songs per minute, morning chorus | six to eight (Forbush) |
| Food, for the year | useful insects 2% · injurious insects 18% · weed seeds 50% · grain, mostly waste, 4% (Forbush, 1907) |
| Season, Massachusetts | resident; spring migrants from late winter, fall movement through November (Forbush) |
Audubon’s arithmetic
From the Ornithological Biography, 1831: The Song Sparrow is one of the most abundant of its tribe in Louisiana, during winter. This abundance is easily accounted for by the circumstance that it rears three broods in the year:—six, five, and three young at each time, making fourteen per annum from a single pair. Supposing a couple to live in health, and enjoy the comforts necessary for the bringing up of their young families, for a period of only ten years, which is a moderate estimate for birds of this class, you will readily conceive how a whole flock of Song Sparrows may in a very short time be produced by them.
Among the many desiderata connected with the study of nature, there is one which, long felt by me, is not less so at the present moment. I have never been able to conceive why a bird which produces more than one brood in a season, should abandon its first nest to construct a new one, as is the case with the present species; while other birds, such as the Ospreys, and various species of Swallows, rear many broods in the first nest which they have made, and to which they return, after their long annual migrations, to repair it, and render it fit for the habitation of the young brood.
There is another fact which renders the question still more difficult to be solved. I have generally found the nests of this Sparrow cleaner and more perfect after the brood raised in them have made their departure, than the nests of the other species of birds mentioned above are on such occasions; a circumstance which would render it unnecessary for the Song Sparrow to repair its nest.
You are aware of the cleanliness of birds with respect to their nests during the whole period occupied in rearing their young. You know that the parents remove the excrements to a distance from them, so long as these excrements are contained in a filmy kind of substance, of which the old bird lays hold with its bill for that express purpose, frequently carrying them off to a distance of forty or fifty yards, or even more.
Well, the Song Sparrow is among the cleanest of the clean. I have often watched the young birds leaving the nest; and after their departure, have found it as well fitted for the reception of a fresh set of eggs as the new nest which the bird constructs. I am unable to understand the reason why a new nest is formed. Can you, reader, solve the question?
Eaton: the cowbird’s favorite host
The nest of the Song sparrow is placed upon the ground under a tussock of grass or on a sloping bank, composed of the stalks of grasses, rootlets, leaves and strips of bark, lined with finer grasses and long hairs. The eggs are usually 4 or 5 in number, bluish white or grayish white in ground color, rather profusely speckled and spotted with rufous brown or purplish brown and obscure lilac shell markings, sometimes uniformly over the whole surface, at other times tending to form a wreath near the larger end.
They average about .80 by .60 inches in dimensions. The first sets of eggs are found in this State from the 25th of April to the 15th of May; eggs of the second brood are usually found about the 20th of June; while a third nesting is often observed in July and August, sometimes as late as the 25th of the latter month.
The second and third nests are frequently built in thick bushes or tall tussocks of grass, sometimes in bushes as high as 6 or 8 feet, and Mr Ralph Paddock of Rochester has a photograph of a Song sparrow’s nest in a hollow apple tree about 5 feet from the ground. This bird, however, is the common ” ground bird ” or ” brown ground bird ” of the school boy, and 99 per cent of their nests are placed upon the ground, but often so securely hidden that they would never be found if the old bird were not startled from the nest.
The Cowbird, however, finds them with perfect ease and often deposits her eggs in the Song sparrow’s nest; but I know of no other native species which can afford so well to rear the young of this interloper as the Song sparrow, for it is one of our most abundant birds, and if its first brood fails on account of the parasitic intruder the mother will, nevertheless, raise one or more later broods of her own.
Thoreau’s teakettle, and the food ledger
From Useful Birds and Their Protection, 1907: Few birds are better known than the Song Sparrow, and few are better friends to man. Those who do not know the bird will recognize it as the sweet singer of March and April, with a large blotch in the middle of its spotted breast. It prefers moist land near water, and may be found along the banks of brooks and the shores of ponds or rivers.
The nest is often sunk in the sloping bank of some brook or ditch. According to Thoreau, its song, as expressed by the country people, runs thus: “Maids! maids! maids! hang on your teakettle-ettle-ettle.” It has a characteristic chenk, evidently an alarm note, and several other notes.
The Song Sparrow is at home in rich, moist gardens, and feeds among crops like cabbage and celery, which are often raised on lowlands. It is destructive to cabbage plant lice and cutworms. It eats some caterpillars of the gipsy moth, the brown-tail moth, and several of the hairless pests among the Geometrids. Leaf hoppers and spittle insects, grasshoppers, locusts, crickets, and click beetles are among the pests that it destroys.
It picks up a few snails and aquatic insects around the water. Flies and their larvae are relished. Earthworms and spiders are frequently taken. Only two per cent. of the food consists of useful insects; injurious species make up eighteen per cent. The vegetable food consists of small fruit, mostly wild, four per cent. of grain, mostly waste, picked up in the fields, while fifty per cent. of the entire food of the year is composed of the seeds of weeds.
Dr. Judd remarks that the chief value of this bird as a seed-eater lies in its habit of eating the seeds of polygonum; these seeds are not so much eaten by other birds. But the Song Sparrow eats the seed of chickweed, purslane, sorrel, dandelion, and dock, all of which are common in Massachusetts gardens.
More than half the grass seed eaten belongs to such troublesome species as crab grass and pigeon grass. Witch grass and barnyard grass are among the seeds that are often freely eaten by this useful bird.
The Song Sparrow sometimes learns to come about the door for crumbs. A pair built a nest on the ground in our garden; buta cat found it. Then a nest was built in a bush; this suffered a fate like the first. Then the birds went up high among the thick sprouts on the trunk of an elm, built another nest, and reared their young in safety.
They were wiser in their way than men, who, in spite of their superior intelligence, continue to build their homes on the shores of rivers which periodically overflow their banks, or on the slopes of volcanoes that occasionally burn or bury cities.
The Song Sparrow is a bird to cultivate. Friendly, cheery, musical, harmless, gentle, useful, — what more can be desired?
Autumn, and the verdict
A few Song Sparrows begin moving away from their breeding places in Massachusetts about the middle of July. Though some may remain until November, most of them have gone by the first of October. Some at least of the New England birds pass southward along the Atlantic seaboard, as one banded by Mr. Wendell P. Smith, in the Connecticut Valley at Wells River, Vermont, on October 13, 1925, was taken at Wadesboro, North Carolina, March 2, 1927, by Mr. J. P. Williamson.
Song Sparrows sing more or less in autumn. Even while molting an occasional whisper song may be heard. There is more singing on warm days in October, however, than in September, and although at times the full loud spring song may be heard, most of the singing is quite different, ranging from a low connected warble to a song resembling that of the Purple Finch, and (rarely) one like that of the Vesper Sparrow.
There is a particularly low, sweet, melancholy warble uttered just before the bird departs for the south. Most of the hardy Song Sparrows that winter in New England probably come to us from the northland and for the most part they pass the winter near the sea, where the ground is clear of snow in patches for a large part of the winter.
A few winter in the interior, some of them well up the valleys of the Connecticut and Merrimack Rivers. In severe winters, however, numbers succumb to cold and starvation. Mr. Wilbur M. Smith, of South Norwalk, Connecticut, told me that in the winter of 1920 Mr. Burgess Jennings saw one fall off a branch in his yard, picked it up and carried it into a warm room, where it finally recovered, and when released flew away. Other similar cases have been reported, but the bird does not always recover.
Economic Status. The only harm done by this bird consists in a small amount of grain and small fruits taken by it occasionally. Dr. Judd considers that it does “much more good than harm.”
Source
Edward Howe Forbush, Birds of Massachusetts and Other New England States, Vol. 3 (1929), Song Sparrow; Edward Howe Forbush, Useful Birds and Their Protection (1907), Song Sparrow; John James Audubon, Ornithological Biography, Vol. 1 (1831), The Song Sparrow; Elon Howard Eaton, Birds of New York, Part 2 (1914), Song Sparrow. Public domain. Internet Archive / Biodiversity Heritage Library.
Passages reproduced verbatim from the scans cited above (all pre-1931 U.S./U.K. publications of American authors). Mechanical edits: hard line-wraps joined and end-of-line hyphenation closed up; doubled OCR word-spacing normalized to single spaces; spacing before punctuation normalized; page headers, plate/photo captions, footnote blocks and footnote reference marks dropped. OCR corrections: “Song Sparrow.” 1” → “Song Sparrow.””; “bluish-while” → “bluish-white”; “docs “much more” → “does “much more”; “Tun Song Sparrow” → “The Song Sparrow”; “moderate ‘estimate” → “moderate estimate”; “witha large blotch” → “with a large blotch”; “their larve are” → “their larvae are”; “the 2Oth of June” → “the 20th of June”. The runs are excerpted at paragraph boundaries: Forbush’s plumage description (interrupted by the Plate 72 caption block in the scan), range, spring-skirmish and cat-episode paragraphs, Audubon’s flight-and-Louisiana and description paragraphs, Eaton’s synonymy, distribution and haunts paragraphs, and the Useful Birds junco section that follows the song sparrow are omitted.
📷 Show us your feeder setup! Share a few photos of your feeders and you might be featured on Wild Bird Scoop. Share your setup →
