Chipping Sparrow Gallery

Spizella passerine

eBird gives this description for the Chipping Sparrow:  Small, slender sparrow with short bill and long, narrow tail. Plain grayish breast with rusty cap in breeding season. Common in suburban areas, particularly golf courses, parking lots and areas with short trees in grassy areas. In winter, beware similar Clay-colored, American Tree, and Brewer’s Sparrows, but look for gray rump and dark eyeline in front of eye. Visits feeders.  All About Birds adds this descriptive information for the Chipping Sparrow:  A crisp, pretty sparrow whose bright rufous cap both provides a splash of color and makes adults fairly easy to identify. Chipping Sparrows are common across North America wherever trees are interspersed with grassy openings. Their loud, trilling songs are one of the most common sounds of spring woodlands and suburbs.

I was able to watch this brightly colored sparrow at both the Christmas Mountains Oasis, the Davis Mountains State Park, as well as the Madera Canyon Trail at the Lawrence E. Wood Roadside Park.  I enjoyed meeting and photographing these birds! 

Chipping Sparrow at Christmas Mountains Oasis, August 31, 2020.
Another view of a Chipping Sparrow at CMO, August 31, 2020.
Chipping Sparrows at Davis Mountains State Park, September 1, 2020.
I saw and photographed this Chipping Sparrow on the Madera Canyon Trail in the Davis Mountains, September 1, 2020.


“Cool Facts” about the Chipping Sparrow from All About Birds…

  • The early naturalists had a gift for description you just don’t see anymore. In 1929, Edward Forbush called the Chipping Sparrow “the little brown-capped pensioner of the dooryard and lawn, that comes about farmhouse doors to glean crumbs shaken from the tablecloth by thrifty housewives.”
  • In much of the West, Chipping Sparrows disperse shortly after breeding to move to areas with better food resources. It’s not unusual to see Chipping Sparrows on alpine tundra or along roadsides in open grasslands. This results in the common misperception that they bred in those areas, when really they simply moved there to molt.
  • Chipping Sparrows typically build their nests low in a shrub or tree, but every once in a while they get creative. People have found their nests among hanging strands of chili peppers, on an old-fashioned mower inside a tool shed, and on a hanging basket filled with moss.
  • The nest of the Chipping Sparrow is of such flimsy construction that light can be seen through it. It probably provides little insulation for the eggs and young.