Song Sparrow sings spring

Dark-eyed Junco and Song Sparrow under the feeder. Margaret Madsen photo

Among the Dark-eyed Juncoes scratching under our feeders the other morning we spotted a friendly new face - the Song Sparrow! Welcome back! When you hear the happy lilting song of this cheerful little bird, you know spring has arrived - although this year you wonder if this really actually is spring because the snow keeps reappearing and it is still so darned cold!

Distinctive facial markings and centre spot on breast
identify Song Sparrow. M. Madsen photo.

The juncoes are just passing through but the Song Sparrow is probably here for the summer season. Male juncoes are dark slate grey and females a brownish grey overall, except for their lower parts - both look like they squatted in white paint. When they take flight, their white outer tail feathers are most obvious.

Unlike the junco that is instantly identifiable, one has to look twice at a Song Sparrow because it first looks like another "LBJ" - little brown job. But then you notice the heavy brown streaks on the light breast, the centre breast spot, the white throat, the dark "whisker" and "mustache" and the brown line through the eye, the white "eyebrow" and the dark crown with a pale line splitting it in half. As you can tell from the first photo, it is about the same size as the junco - and those wretched House Sparrows. This is our Saskatchewan version of the Song Sparrow. There are apparently about 30 different races of varying sizes and colorations.