Chipping Sparrow

Here's a Chipping Sparrow, a bird I see the most around May (this picture was from early May of 2023) but will encounter sometimes in the summer. My guess is that this is because we're on the southern part of their summer range, and in the early spring I'm seeing at least some individuals who are passing through New Jersey on their way further north. In the summer I'm probably only seeing the Chipping Sparrows that have chosen to breed here.

Though not our most distinctive sparrow (that's probably the showy Eastern Towhee), these crisp-looking little birds with the rufus caps generally stand out from the "little brown birds". Their closest relatives that are commonly found in New Jersey are the Field Sparrows. Chipping and Field Sparrows aren't extremely common here, but it's also not hard to run across a few of them.

Chipping Sparrows frequently sing a chi-chi-chi-chi song which led to their name.

May 3, 2023 at Duke Farms
Photo 278557367, (c) jpviolette, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC)


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