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Birdaday Field Notes

ID comparison

Backyard sparrow identification: six common sparrows compared

This page compares six sparrows that turn up in North American backyards and at feeders: House, Song, Chipping, White-throated, White-crowned and American Tree Sparrow. Cornell's All About Birds suggests sorting winter sparrows by shape and color pattern, then checking range maps, because many lose their brightest breeding marks in winter. The general method is in bird identification basics.

Three questions that sort most birds

1. Is the breast streaked? Thick streaks on a white chest point to Song Sparrow; the other five are plain-breasted as adults (All About Birds, Audubon).

2. Black-and-white stripes on the crown? Then White-throated or White-crowned: look for the white throat and yellow spot before the eye, which only the White-throated has (Audubon).

3. A rusty cap? Chipping or American Tree Sparrow: the tree sparrow adds a two-toned bill and a dark spot in the middle of a plain breast (FeederWatch).

Field-mark table

Adults; "breeding" means spring and summer plumage.

Species Head Breast Bill Also check
House Sparrow Male: gray cap, white cheeks, black bib, rufous nape. Female: buffy-brown, pale buff eyebrow (All About Birds, Audubon) Male black bib; female dingy gray-brown, plain (All About Birds, Audubon) Stout; black on breeding males, thick and yellowish on females (All About Birds) Chunky, large rounded head, short tail (All About Birds)
Song Sparrow Red-brown and gray; pale eyebrow, brown stripe on each side of the throat (All About Birds) Thick streaks on a white chest and flanks, often merging into a central blotch (All About Birds, Audubon) Short and stout (All About Birds) Long tail, pumped downward in flight (All About Birds)
Chipping Sparrow Breeding: chestnut cap, white eyebrow, black eyeline. Winter: less contrast, cap partly obscured and more tan-brown (Audubon, FeederWatch) Plain gray, no spot (FeederWatch) Small for a sparrow; dark in summer, may look pinkish in winter (All About Birds, FeederWatch) Slender; buffy wing bars (All About Birds, FeederWatch)
White-throated Sparrow Black and white (or tan) crown stripes, yellow lores, black eyestripe, white throat edged by a black whisker (All About Birds) Gray; some first-winter birds have blurry streaks (Audubon) Dark (Audubon) Large, full-bodied; scratches in leaf litter (All About Birds, Audubon)
White-crowned Sparrow Bold black-and-white stripes; first-winter birds have tan and brown stripes instead (Audubon) Plain pearly-gray (Audubon) Pale; pink, orange or yellow depending on region (Audubon, All About Birds) Long tail; white wing bars (All About Birds, Audubon)
American Tree Sparrow Rusty cap all year; rusty line behind the eye (FeederWatch) Smooth gray with a central dark spot, sometimes hidden (All About Birds, FeederWatch) Two-toned: dark upper, yellow lower (FeederWatch) Often fluffed out; white wing bars (All About Birds, FeederWatch)
Head patterns of six backyard sparrowsSix simplified sparrow heads facing left in a grid of two columns and three rows, each numbered. 1 House Sparrow male: gray cap, white cheek, rufous nape, black mask and bib, black bill. 2 Song Sparrow: brown crown, pale eyebrow, brown line behind the eye, brown stripe on the side of the throat, white breast with brown streaks and a central blotch. 3 Chipping Sparrow in breeding plumage: rufous cap, white eyebrow, black line through the eye, plain gray breast, small dark bill. 4 White-throated Sparrow: black crown with a white center stripe, white eyebrow with a yellow patch in front of the eye, white throat bordered by a black whisker, gray breast, dark bill. 5 White-crowned Sparrow: black crown with a white center stripe, white eyebrow, black line behind the eye, gray throat and breast, pinkish-orange bill. 6 American Tree Sparrow: rusty cap, rusty line behind the eye, gray breast with a dark central spot, bill dark above and yellow below. HouseSong ChippingWhite-throated White-crownedAmerican Tree 1 2 3 4 5 6
  1. House Sparrow, breeding male: gray cap, white cheek, rufous nape, black bib and bill.
  2. Song Sparrow: brown throat stripe; streaks merging into a central blotch.
  3. Chipping Sparrow, breeding: chestnut cap, white eyebrow, black eyeline.
  4. White-throated Sparrow: yellow lores, white throat edged by a black whisker.
  5. White-crowned Sparrow: no yellow lores or white throat; pale bill.
  6. American Tree Sparrow: rusty eyeline, two-toned bill, central breast spot.
Drawn for Birdaday Field Notes as generic sparrow heads, following All About Birds, Project FeederWatch and Audubon, cited below. Simplified adults; not to scale. Real birds vary with age, season and region.

Size and shape

All About Birds uses the Song Sparrow as a yardstick: the House Sparrow is about its size but stockier, the Chipping smaller and trimmer, the White-throated slightly larger. The two references give different length ranges:

Species Length (All About Birds) Length (Audubon) Weight (All About Birds) Wingspan (All About Birds)
House Sparrow 5.9–6.7 in 5–6.5 in 0.9–1.1 oz 7.5–9.8 in
Song Sparrow 4.7–6.7 in 5–7 in 0.4–1.9 oz 7.1–9.4 in
Chipping Sparrow 4.7–5.9 in 5–5.5 in 0.4–0.6 oz 8.3 in
White-throated Sparrow 6.3–7.1 in 6–7 in 0.8–1.1 oz 7.9–9.1 in
White-crowned Sparrow 5.9–6.3 in 5.9–6.3 in 0.9–1.0 oz 8.3–9.4 in
American Tree Sparrow about 5.5 in 5.5–6.3 in 0.5–1.0 oz 9.4 in (Audubon: 9.4–10.6 in)

FeederWatch gives 6.25 in for American Tree and 5.5 in for Chipping Sparrow. With ranges this close, pattern beats size.

When and where you will see them

Species Backyard season Habitat and habits Voice
House Sparrow Permanent resident (Audubon) Always around buildings (Audubon) Shrill, monotonous chirping (Audubon)
Song Sparrow All year in many areas; northern interior birds move south (Audubon) Thickets, gardens; feeders near cover (Audubon) Three short notes, then a varied trill (Audubon)
Chipping Sparrow A common spring singer in woodlands and suburbs; small flocks in fall and winter; increasingly winters farther north (All About Birds, FeederWatch) Open woods, orchards, towns (Audubon) Thin trill on one note, likened to a sewing machine (Audubon)
White-throated Sparrow Breeds mostly in Canada; winters across much of the East, the South and California (All About Birds) Ground in woods and brushy edges (All About Birds) Whistled Oh-sweet-canada (All About Birds) or Poor Sam Peabody (Audubon)
White-crowned Sparrow Winter across much of the US, roughly September to March or April; all year in parts of the West (All About Birds) Brushy places, hedgerows (Audubon) Clear whistles followed by buzzy notes (Audubon)
American Tree Sparrow Winter only; breeds on the far northern tundra (All About Birds) Weedy fields, brushy roadsides (All About Birds, Audubon) Winter call a silvery tsee-ler (Audubon)

For the songs themselves, see bird songs for beginners.

The look-alike pairs

Chipping vs American Tree Sparrow

Both have a rusty cap and a gray breast, but FeederWatch says their ranges typically overlap only during migration, so date and place already narrow it.

  1. Bill: two-toned (dark above, yellow below) on the tree sparrow; dark, or pinkish in winter, on the Chipping (FeederWatch).
  2. Eyeline: rusty brown on the tree sparrow, black or dark brown on the Chipping (FeederWatch).
  3. Breast spot: a central spot means tree sparrow, but FeederWatch calls the spot "deceptively unreliable" because it can be hidden.
  4. Wing bars and shoulder: white bars and a rusty shoulder on the tree sparrow; buffy bars and a gray shoulder on the Chipping (FeederWatch).

White-throated vs White-crowned Sparrow

Both are large sparrows with striped crowns. Audubon's advice: look for the White-throated's white throat patch and yellow lores, which the White-crowned lacks. Stripe color alone is not enough: White-throated Sparrows come in white-striped and tan-striped forms (All About Birds), and first-winter White-crowned Sparrows have tan and brown stripes (Audubon). The White-crowned's pale bill is pink in the East and Rockies, orange from Alaska to Hudson Bay and yellow on the Pacific Coast (All About Birds).

White-throated Sparrow perched on a bare twig in side view: black-and-white striped crown, bright yellow patch between the eye and the bill, white throat, gray breast, dark bill and rufous-brown wings White-crowned Sparrow standing on a weathered log in side view: bold black-and-white crown stripes, pale pinkish-orange bill, plain gray face and breast with no white throat patch, brown streaked back and a long tail
Left: White-throated Sparrow, Cap Tourmente National Wildlife Area, Quebec (May 2011): yellow lores and a white throat. Right: White-crowned Sparrow, same refuge (May 2009): striped crown, pale bill, plain gray throat and breast (All About Birds, Audubon). Both are Quality images on Wikimedia Commons; species as given on each file page.
Photos: Cephas / CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons; Cephas / CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Song Sparrow vs other streaked sparrows

All About Birds' 2019 streaked-sparrow guide: Song Sparrow streaks usually merge into a central splotch; Fox Sparrow streaks are thicker and blurrier; Lincoln's are finer, on a buffy chest; Savannah has a shorter, notched tail; Vesper has a complete white eyering. Song Sparrows also vary by region: coastal and northern birds are darker and streakier, southern and desert birds paler (All About Birds).

Female House Sparrow vs native sparrows

The House Sparrow is not closely related to North American sparrows and is shaped differently: chunkier, fuller in the chest, with a larger rounded head, shorter tail and stouter bill (All About Birds). It was first released in North America in New York in 1851 (Audubon; All About Birds names Brooklyn). A plain female can suggest a winter sparrow, so judge shape and the thick yellowish bill. Nest box problems with this species are covered in keeping House Sparrows out of birdhouses.

Sparrow ID checklist

Note these before reaching for a field guide (adapted from Jessie Barry, All About Birds, 2012):

For your Bird-a-Day streak

Six species, six possible days. House and Song Sparrows are present all year in many areas (Audubon), so they make good backup birds; American Tree and White-crowned Sparrows are mostly winter birds in much of the US (All About Birds). Spread them through a species plan and log each in the streak tracker.

Sources