Chipping Sparrow

The Chipping Sparrow is a bird that winters in Fort Bend so they’ve been showing up lately for the seed harvest.

With a jaunty reddish brown cap, you may miss them when House Sparrows are near. Both are seed eaters and forage on the ground or on seed platforms.

Sometimes the distinct grayish white stripe over the eye may alert you to a Chipping Sparrow before you see the cap.

The Chipping Sparrows gravitate to tree and grassy areas so watch for them in parks, your garden if it has trees and grassy or understory areas where there are seed to forage. However, the aggressive House Sparrows may overwhelm their numbers unless you spot the reddish brown cap or see the distinctive gray rump when they fly.  

For photo comparisons with House Sparrows see the next pictures of male and female House Sparrows.

 

House Sparrows don't have the reddish brown cap
nor the velvety gray breast and rump of the Chipping Sparrow.

The male House Sparrow may have more gray, but it is less rich than the Chipping Sparrow.

Photos copyrighted by Quail Valley resident and international birder Margaret Sloan. View her international and national bird pictures by pressing this link.

See a bird you don't recognize in Fort Bend? Margaret has photographed 130+ bird species just in her suburban backyard alone. Narrow your initial search by viewing her full photo album of local birds, Birds of Quail Valley by pressing this link. They are organized by types of birds, so if it's a water bird for example, you may find one that helps you narrow your search. Then if you "google in" the name of the bird, you'll get info and all kinds of information and images. Sometimes if a species is remarkably different from adult you may find nothing, contact us and we'll do our best to help.

Researched and posted by Janice Scanlan