Singing with Fox Sparrows

A modest thicket of trees along a street can be the perfect place to hear one of the earliest bird songs of spring: the Fox Sparrow. You can hear their loud, spirited songs from dense vegetation throughout much of the U.S. The easternmost birds have the rufous color of a Red Fox. Others found further west are a mix of brown, rust and gray. The stocky sparrow reveals itself by vigorously kicking the leaf litter with both feet.

BirdNote^®

Singing with Fox Sparrows

Written by Bob Sundstrom

This is BirdNote.

A modest thicket of trees along a street can be the perfect place to hear one of the earliest bird songs of spring: the Fox Sparrow.

[Fox Sparrow song (Red) ML 136175, 0:14-0:17]

A loud, spirited song of whistled notes tells us the Fox Sparrow is at hand.

[Fox Sparrow song (Red) ML 136175, 0:33-0:36]

The stocky sparrow reveals itself by vigorously kicking the leaf litter with both feet. It’s rust-brown and gray above and on the face, with a white breast speckled with rusty streaks.

Fox Sparrows breed in boreal forests and in the mountains of the West. There are four geographic groups, each with a unique plumage. The easternmost birds have the rufous color of a Red Fox. Others found further west are a mix of brown, rust and gray.

Fox Sparrows’ varied habitats include boreal spruce and shrubby willows, rocky alpine thickets and brushy forest clearings, and moist stream sides and chaparral. What these places have in common is dense vegetation where the sneaky Fox Sparrow is at home.

[Fox Sparrow song (Red) ML 136175, 0:14-0:17]

As winter ends, look for these striking sparrows tossing up leaves beside a trail or road. If you have a birdfeeder, scattering seed on the ground could draw a Fox Sparrow out of hiding.

For BirdNote, I’m Michael Stein. Today’s show brought to you by the Bobolink Foundation.
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Senior Producer: John Kessler
Content Director: Allison Wilson
Producer: Mark Bramhill
Associate Producer: Ellen Blackstone
Managing Producer: Conor Gearin
Bird sounds provided by The Macaulay Library of Natural Sounds at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, New York. Fox Sparrow ML 136175 recorded by M. Medler.
BirdNote’s theme was composed and played by Nancy Rumbel and John Kessler.
© 2022 BirdNote March 2022 Narrator: Michael Stein

ID# FOSP-01-2022-03-25 FOSP-01

References:
http://www.birdweb.org/birdweb/bird/fox_sparrow
https://birdsoftheworld.org/bow/species/foxspa/cur/sounds
https://www.birdwatchersdigest.com/bwdsite/learn/identification/sparrow…
https://www.google.com/amp/s/thecottonwoodpost.net/2018/09/11/the-basic…