Here in South-eastern New York, the colorful Fox Sparrow is one of our ‘snowbirds.’
As Winter descends on us like a freight train from the North, Fox Sparrows join flocks of Dark-eyed Juncos, White-throated and White-crowned Sparrows enthusiastically scratching for seeds below busy snow-covered bird feeders.
Although large for a sparrow, it never ‘hogs’ the feeder, but patiently waits for the House Finches, Black-capped Chickadees and others to ‘spill’ the food.
A Fox Sparrow is about six-and-a-half to seven-and-a-half inches long (roughly sixteen to nineteen centimeters), very large for a sparrow. It has a thick bicolored conical bill (dark upper mandible and yellow lower mandible) and a thick rust-colored malar streak. The Fox Sparrow’s crown, nape and back are gray. Its breast and thin eye-ring are white.
It gets its common name as well as its Latin name (iliaca) from the rusty fox-like coloring of its cheeks, wings and tail. It also has heavy rust-colored streaks on its back and spotting below. These spots often meet to form streaks and a central breast-spot, like that of a Song Sparrow.
During Winter, when the male does not sing, the male and the female Fox Sparrow are not distinguishable in the field.
Fox Sparrows are short distance migrants. In Spring they breed in successional-scrub habitats in Northern Canada, Alaska and the Rocky Mountains.
During the Winter, they migrate south to join our other ‘snowbirds’ in New York as well as points further south.
During a typical mating season up North, they will nest twice. The mating couple collects weeds, twigs, moss, grass and leaves out of which the female builds their open cup-shaped nest, either on the ground or close to it in a bush or a small tree. The female usually lays from three to five pale green eggs and incubates them for almost two weeks. Once hatched, the nestlings are fed at the nest until they fledge about a month after the eggs were laid. Once fledged, an adult Fox Sparrow’s diet consists mostly of seeds and lesser quantities of insects and fruit.
The best place to look for Fox Sparrows during Winter is near a bird feeding station.
In more wild surroundings, Fox Sparrows can be found in wooded areas, and even along railroad lines, where they scratch for grass and weed seeds.
But be quick for, come Spring, these snowbirds will have left on the Northern Express!
Links to the sources of this information:
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