SONG SPARROW (Melospiza melodia) SOSP Sample size: 966 |
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The Song Sparrow breeds in a wide variety of non-forest habitats: forest edge, shrubs, overgrown fields, hedges, thickets beside water, farms, gardens, arid scrub, clumps of bushes on dunes and saltmarsh [Byers et al. 1995]. First nests of the season are built on the ground before the vegetation is fully leafed-out, with one to three more nesting attempts, on the ground or in low dense growth, clutch size is 3-5 eggs [Nice 1937]. During the breeding season from April to August, food is more than half insects and other invertebrates [Judd 1901]. Song Sparrows breed from the Aleutian Is. to south Newfoundland in the north; south to central Baja California, Arkansas, north Georgia and South Carolina, and in the Mexican highlands south to Puebla [AOU 1998]. Winter habitat resembles breeding habitat, though often in more open areas, often flocking together and with other brush and open habitat bird species. Food is more than half vegetable matter, chiefly weed seeds and berries [Judd 1901]. Song Sparrows commonly come to feeders when seed is scattered on the ground [Stokes and Stokes 1996]. For coastal areas, the winter range is similar to breeding range, but interior populations winter south of the northern U.S./Canadian border, and south to the most northern Mexican states and Florida. New England birds are common throughout in summer, and in all states except interior Maine in winter [AOU 1998].
Migration is mainly nocturnal; birds are found in any open habitat. Winter birds leave Florida in March [Howell 1932], migrants arriving to join wintering birds in Massachusetts by late-March to early April. Fall migration in New England is particularly obvious on the coast in September/October [Veit and Petersen 1993]. Southernmost migrants return to Florida in mid-October [Howell 1932], and northern Mexico in October [Howell and Webb 1995].
Long-term Breeding Bird Survey data (1966-2000) for all northeast states show a significant decline in Song Sparrow populations of -1.2% per year. In our study area, populations are also declining significantly in all states for the more recent period 1980-2000 (VT -2.7% per year, MA -2.2%, CT -1.6%, NH -1.3%) [Sauer et al. 2001]. Nests are frequently parasitized by Brown-headed Cowbirds, often with the removal of a Song Sparrow egg by the cowbird, leading to lowering of reproductive success. Habitat loss and increased predation of the nests by cats, mammalian and bird predators is attributed to rising human populations throughout the range [Nice 1937, Leahy 1982, Soule 1986].
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Observations
The transects for this study were carefully placed in primarily deciduous forest habitat, avoiding wetlands, developments and grasslands, so as to concentrate on the major migration habitat of the valley. Song sparrows winter and breed in open, non-forest habitats, but may be found in surprising numbers in woodlands, at least in this study of spring migration, with a total of 966 records in the three years. CT had by far the highest density of Song Sparrows, 590 of the 966 recorded. Habitat differences were also significant, with 674 records from A sites along the main river, 260 from B (tributaries), and only 32 from C sites in upland forest, away from the rivers.
This late March-April migrant had arrived in many of its preferred breeding habitats by the first period, but birds recorded through periods 2 and 3 may have included some late migrants.
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SOSP Map
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