Rondeau Ric

  March 27, 2025, Rondeau Provincial Park, Ontario, Canada. Song sparrows have been regular visitors to the yard for the last 2-3 weeks. This one took the opportunity to have a bath. Melospiza melodia t It perches on a low shrub, leans back, and sings a stuttering, clattering song.

 In our yard, March 13, 2023, Rondeau Provincial Park, Ontario, Canada. Still not much of a variety of species, it should pick up in about a month. Melospiza melodia. The Song Sparrow is found throughout most of North America, but the birds of different areas can look surprisingly different. Song Sparrows of the Desert Southwest are pale, while those in the Pacific Northwest are dark and heavily streaked. Song Sparrows of Alaska’s Aleutian Islands chain are even darker, and they’re huge: one-third longer than the eastern birds, and weighing twice as much.

Song Sparrow Jan 21, 2020, Rondeau Provincial Park, Ontario, Canada. Not one we get in our yard a lot during the winter. Photographed thru a window. Melospiza melodia Song Sparrows seem to have a clear idea of what makes a good nest. Field researchers working for many years on the same parcels of land have noticed that some choice spots – the base of a rose bush, or a particular hollow under a hummock of grass, for example – get used over and over again, even when entirely new birds take over the territory. source - Cornell Lab of Ornithology.

Don't fence me in. , a photo by ricmcarthur on Flickr. We saw this fellow in Texas a few years back. Seemed to have a regional song that sounded a lot like - "Oh, give me land, lots of land under starry skies above Don't fence me in" Scientific stuff. Melospiza melodia Song Sparrows walk or hop on the ground and flit or hop through branches, grass, and weeds. Song Sparrows stay low and forage secretively, but males come to exposed perches, including limbs of small trees, to sing. The oldest known Song Sparrow lived to be 11 years, 4 months old www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/song_sparrow/lifehistory

Song Sparrow , a photo by ricmcarthur on Flickr. Song sparrows usually return in the early spring and I think of them as a sign spring is here. They are a mid sized sparrow with a long rounded tail and heavy streaking on the breast. The streaking merges into a large central spot. melospiza melodia