As I mentioned in a recent column, I will be featuring many species of sparrows over the coming weeks.
This week’s bird, the fox sparrow, is big and brightly colored and really stands out among other sparrows. It spends the winter over much of the state, which includes most of Southwest Oklahoma.
I’ve had fox sparrows visit my yard many times in the past, although they are uncommon visitors to feeding stations. They don’t really visit elevated feeders but will eat seed on the ground. In fact, fox sparrows spend most of their time near the ground.
Now, there are several different varieties of fox sparrows, but I am only going to focus on the “red” variety, as it is the one that winters in Oklahoma. The other varieties are western birds.
It’s fun to watch these birds eat. They have this little dance — a behavior not unique to fox sparrows — where they kick the ground in search of food. They kick dirt forward, then bring their feet back quickly while scratching the ground. This helps expose seeds and insects.
In the wild, I’ve often observed these birds kicking and scratching in wood- land leaf litter.
Appearance
Last week, I featured the Harris’s sparrow, among the largest sparrows in the United States. The fox sparrow is slightly shorter than the Harris’s, but it is relatively the same size, maybe a little plumper. The Harris’s has a long tail, whereas the fox sparrow’s tail is medium in length.
The fox sparrow was named for its rich red hues, according to the Cornell Lab of Ornithology. And the variety that visits Oklahoma is a mixture of reddish brown, white and gray/silver.
The head is a mixture of red and silver. Although their beaks range from
yellow to gray, the major- ity of fox sparrows I have seen had yellow beaks. Their breasts and bellies are white, but the flanks and breast are marked with reddish brown arrow- head-shaped splotches. And most have one large splotch in the center of the breast.
The song sparrow is similar in appearance and even has a spot on its chest. However, the song sparrow is smaller, its brown markings are dark- er overall, and it lacks the silver on the head like on that of the fox sparrow.
Habitat
As I mentioned previ- ously, fox sparrows spend most of their time near the ground. They like scrub- by habitat, such as dense thickets.
Food
During breeding season, like many birds, fox spar- rows eat mainly insects. In the colder months, they eat a mixture of seeds and insects. They will visit feeders but are more likely to eat seed that has either been spread on the ground or has fallen from an elevated feeder. To attract these birds in winter, offer millet, black oil sunflower seed, nyjer and cracked corn.
Range
The red variety of fox sparrow nests in Alaska and northern Canada. It winters in the southeast- ern portion of the United States, which includes much of Oklahoma, from about Altus to Ponca City and east. However, it is
an uncommon visitor. The Wichita Mountains National Wildlife Refuge lists is as being “seen only a few times during the season.”
Odds and ends
• The Cornell Lab of Ornithology reports that 19-century naturalist William Brewster was inspired by the rich song of breeding fox sparrows.
Brewster wrote, “At all hours of the day, in every kind of weather late into the brief summer, its voice rises among the evergreen woods filling the air with quivering, delicious mel- ody, which at length dies softly, mingling with the soughing of the wind in the spruces, or drowned by the muffled roar of the surf beating against neighboring cliffs.”
• The Lab reports that fox sparrow fossils from the Pleistocene era (about 11,000 years ago) have been found in Pennsylva- nia, Virginia and at the La Brea tar pits in California.
Randy Mitchell is a free- lance writer and photogra pher. He has been an avid birdwatcher, nature enthusiast and photographer for 40 years. Reach him at rnw@usa.com.