American Tree Sparrows
By Charlie • March 11, 2006 • 1 commentAmerican Tree Sparrow Spizella arborea
Great Swamp National Wildlife Refuge, New Jersey, March 2006
Unlike many North American sparrows which winter mainly south of the US/Mexican border, the American Tree Sparrow is a common winter visitor in backyards all across southern Canada and the northern United States. The birds photographed below will soon be moving north ahead of most other migrant passerines, and establishing territories in northern Canada and Alaska.
Despite its common and scientific names (arborea = “of trees”), it forages on the ground, nests on the ground, and breeds primarily in open scrubby areas above the treeline.
Precise population figures are difficult to obtain as the species breeds across such a vast expanse - and far to the north of most researchers and birders - but if their approximately 100 million hectares (247 million acres) range is about 10-20% filled, and they have 1-ha territories, as is the case near Churchill, Manitoba where they have been well studied, then there should be approximately 10 to 20 million breeding pairs.
(Information adapted from www.birds.cornell.edu/programs/BirdGuide/American_Tree_Sparrow_dtl.html)
All photos copyright Charlie Moores
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[…] The only other sparrow one might be worried about confusing the two species above with is the American Tree Sparrow, which also sports a jaunty red cap, but they have pretty much all left for the north by now and […]