Song Sparrows
Taxonomy
- Phylum: Craniata
- Class: Aves
- Order: Passeriformes
- Family: Passerellidae
- Genus: Melospiza
- Species: melodia
History
Song sparrow are generally found in most types of open habits such as marsh edges, desert washes, overgrown fields, backyards and forest edges. Song sparrows are a widespread species of bird that can be found across Canada and most of North America. Across North American. (Song Sparrow range map, Cornelle labs all about birds).
The song sparrow is one of the more intensively studied bird species and is often used as a model organism for studies on bird song and extensive research has been conducted on its behaviour, ecology, physiology and genetics
To find this bird, start looking in the spring and summer, as song sparrows are one of the most conspicuous of all the sparrow species. Song sparrows can often be found eating from bird nests and bird feeders in residential areas .You can often find male song sparrows perched on exposed branches at eye level, singing to attract a female. Song sparrows are also known to move along wetlands edges, ducking into dense, low vegetation after short burst of their distinct tail-pumping flight.
Song Sparrows are a medium-sized sparrow, with a milky brown colouring. The tail of a Song Sparrow is a long, rounded and coloured brown. They have coarse streaks across the chest that converse into one middle spot. On the head of Song Sparrow they have a mixture of red-brown slate-grey. Song sparrows, have a short bill, with a stout, and a fairly rounded head compared to other sparrows. Song sparrows have broad wings, that can span from 7.1-9.4 inches. Song sparrows are about medium sized, fairly bulky. The expected range for weight of a song sparrow is 0.4-1.9oz, and length of 4.7-6.7 inches.
Song sparrows are slightly larger than a chipping sparrow, and slightly smaller than a dark eyed junco.
Song Sparrows have been sorted into 24 subspecies, and have regional variability into 52 known forms. Song Sparrows have some of the most regional variability for birds in North America. The subspecies morphna is one of many of these subspecies. Morphna is the subspecies most likely to be found on Vancouver island. The morphna has many features that disquish it from other Song Sparrows, such as dark ruddy brown tail feathers. The primaries and secondaries are more dark brown, and they have a wide jaw stripe and the throat feathers are more of a yellow.
Difference between Song Sparrows and other sparrows in and around Nanaimo, BC Canada.
Nanaimo, British Columbia hosts a variety of sparrows such as Savannah Sparrow (Passerculus sandwichensis), Golden-crowned Sparrow (Zonotrichia atricapilla), White-throated Sparrow (Zonotrichia albicollis), White-crowned Sparrow (Zonotrichia leucophrys) Fox Sparrow (Passerella iliaca), Lincoln’s Sparrow (Melospiza lincolnii) and of course the Song Sparrow (Melospiza melodia). Each sparrow has distinguished traits, to look out for when IDing. It is very important to know these distinctions as to avoid miss IDing a bird.
When comparing a Song Sparrow to a Savannah Sparrow, looking at the tail shape and size can be very beneficial as Savannah Sparrows have a smaller, notch tail compared to that of a Song Sparrow. Savannah Sparrows will usually have a yellow stripe above there eye that a Song Sparrow will not have. Lastly when looking at the streaking patterns on each bird, you will notice that Savannah Sparrows have much crisper streaking compared to Song Sparrows.
Golden-crowned Sparrow are typically larger than Song Sparrows, as Golden-crowned Sparrows weight approximately 29g, while Songs Sparrows are approximately 20g. Golden-crowned Sparrows on average tend to be about 7.25″ long with a wingspan of 9.5″, compared to Song Sparrows that are 6.25″ in length and have a wing span of 8.25″. Golden-crowned Sparrows get their name from there distinct golden crown, that stands out significantly when compared to a Song Sparrow, this is most noticeable during breeding season (March-August). Another distinguishing during breeding season is to look at the bill of each bird, Golden-Crowned Sparrows have a bicoloured bill unlike the greyish bill of a Song Sparrow.
White-throated Sparrow are the largest sparrow that is typically found in Nanaimo, BC. Adult White-throated Sparrows have a stripped crown that can range from tanned to white regardless of sex and age, unlike Song Sparrows that have a greyish and brown crown. Most noticeable difference is the bright white patch located below the beak, along with a yellow patch directly above the eye and bill of the White-throated Sparrow, that the Song Sparrow does not have.
The bright white strip on the crown and orange to pink bill are features of a White-crowned Sparrow, not found on a Song Sparrow. While the Song Sparrow has patches of brown on its central breast, the White-crowned Sparrow lacks any patches, and has a smooth grey across its breast, however the wings of a White-Crowned Sparrow has white stripes across its wings.
The Fox Sparrow like the Song Sparrow has a large amount of variation and subspecies, the subspecies of Fox Sparrow found in Nanaimo, B.C. is a Sooty Fox Sparrow. The Sooty Fox Sparrow can look quite similar to the subspecies of Song Sparrow (Melospiza melodia morphna) found in Nanaimo, B.C. Unlike a Song Sparrow, Fox Sparrows, have more a triangle patterned shape on its breast compared to the streaks of Song Sparrow. Fox Sparrows are also known to have more a redder coating on the wings and tail.
The Fox Sparrow like the Song Sparrow has a large amount of variation and subspecies, the subspecies of Fox Sparrow found in Nanaimo, B.C. is a Sooty Fox Sparrow. The Sooty Fox Sparrow can look quite similar to the subspecies of Song Sparrow (Melospiza melodia morphna) found in Nanaimo, B.C. Unlike a Song Sparrow, Fox Sparrows, have more a triangle patterned shape on its breast compared to the streaks of Song Sparrow. Fox Sparrows are also known to have more a redder coating on the wings and tail.
Finally the Lincoln’s Sparrow the closest relative to the Song Sparrow in Nanaimo, B.C. Lincoln’s Sparrow are typically the smallest Sparrow in the area of Nanaimo being only 17g on average compared to Song Sparrow, that average 20g. The juveniles of Song Sparrow and Lincoln’s Sparrow can be distinguished by the shorter tail, slimmer bill and thinner malar strip of the Lincoln’s Sparrow. The adults can be distinguished by the finer streaked throat, slender bill, buffy eye ring and tanner/yellow feathers found on the breast of the Lincoln’s Sparrow.
| Size comparison of Sparrows in Nanaimo, BC | |||||||
| Song | Lincoln’s | Golden-crowned | White throated | White-crowned | Fox | Savannah | |
| Weight (g) | 20 | 17 | 26 | 29 | 29 | 36 | 20 |
| Length (“) | 6.25 | 5.75 | 6.75 | 7.25 | 7 | 7 | 5.5 |
| Wingspan (“) | 8.25 | 7.5 | 9 | 9.5 | 9.5 | 10.5 | 8.75 |
Vocalization
Male Song Sparrows are known to move along wetlands edges, ducking into dense, low vegetation after short burst of their distinct tail-pumping flight, and can be found perched on exposed branches singing to attract a female. Studies have shown that females are not just attracted to the song its self but also the males ability to learn. The ability to learn more components to a song and closer to the adult bird they learned it from, the more attractive the female will find the male. The main components of a song are the notes, syllables, trills and note complexes. It is Song Sparrows important for Song Sparrows to have a large repertoire of songs, along with calls used to vocalize the disquisition of boundaries and territories.
A Song Sparrow song will have clanking song that’s 2-6 phrases that are well-spaced and typically ending with buzz or thrill, each song lasts about 2-4 seconds. The singer may add additional thrills that are a different tempo and have a different quality of noise, Song Sparrows have a vast amount of different songs, and can sound quite noticeably different in some regions compared to others, even sound different when in a different neighborhoods, if you were to travel to another province looking for Song Sparrows, it would be very unlikely that you would hear the same songs you hear in when your back home.
The complex songs of a Song Sparrow when mapped out show the use of main different unique notes for each song that are not repeated in a pattern, however within each song are notes that repeat themselves that are syllables. All songs were sung by the same male song sparrow(Kochvar, Peters, Zipple, Nowicki 2022)
Song Sparrow Research
Song Sparrows, are named after the use of there songs. Songs of the song sparrow are an important part of mate selection, and may contain important information about quality of male, this is a sexual selection known as mate-mate selection. The song patterns change significantly as birds age from one year to the next including song production patterns and complexity. Female song sparrow benefit from being able to recognize specific features of a song that represents the quality of the male singing telling her the viability of the potential reproductive success for future offspring. A males song repiture can represent its potential fitness, to mates and other males. Studies have proposed that an individuals age to be a reliable correlation of its quality telling the receiver its age, that provides information that is important to both mates and rivals. Older individuals wants to represent its age as it can be a benefit as by using its more complex songs it can say to a mate “hey look how long I’ve lived I must have high fitness to survive this long, my offspring will also have high fitness then”.
In the context of male to male selection, a first years song may be display a less threatening signal through its song, this may be to avoid aggressive interactions with older males. Song sparrow research over the course of the bird first three years is done to elevate whether age related variation exists to display different messages to other mates as to avoid aggressive behaviors form other males. The delayed maturation of songs has been observed in a variety of songbirds for example in swamp sparrows, males will display changes in song rate, song length, song frequency and their vocal performance between first and second year. In other species of songbird the most noticeable difference is between first and second year, with smaller changes in subsequential years. In Song Sparrows, only song repetiteur has been observed, as a change between ages, with no evidence of delayed maturation between age and size. In the study longitudinal dataset was obtained from 17 hand-reared male song sparrows, in an attempt to determine whether age related changes are displayed that may effect both male and female response displaying song quality and signs of aggressiveness.
In order to determine the relationship between age and correlation with each song characteristic, we used linear mixed models with each individual bird as a random effect to test for within-bird differences in song characteristics across the first three years of life. The table below shows the changes between song characteristic’s between different ages, the first three columns show the average and standard error of each song, for each song characteristics. The last three columns show the significance between each age comparison.
| Song characteristic | Age 1 (SE) | Age 2 (SE) | Age 3 (SE) | Age 1–2 | Age 2–3 | Age 1–3 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| MCV proportion | 0.49 (0.03) | 0.59 (0.02) | 0.63 (0.03) | 0.0002*** | 0.09 | < 0.0001*** |
| Number of notes | 16.6 (1.0) | 18.1 (1.0) | 18.4 (0.9) | 0.0005*** | 0.56 | 0.0001*** |
| Unique number of notes | 9.1 (0.6) | 9.9 (0.5) | 10.3 (0.5) | 0.0009*** | 0.16 | < 0.0001*** |
| Time interval – within (sec) | 27.8 (4.1) | 91.1 (51.2) | 57.1 (15.9) | 0.04* | 0.59 | 0.12 |
| Time interval – between (sec) (between bout) | 168.7 (43.4) | 311.3 (55.9) | 257.6 (51.5) | <0.0001*** | 0.08 | 0.0003*** |
| Singing rate (songs/hour) | 97.3 (18.3) | 52.8 (12.6) | 57.3 (11.9) | < 0.0001*** | 0.64 | 0.0001*** |
| Within-song stereotypy | 0.95 (0.01) | 0.95 (0.01) | 0.95 (0.01) | 0.90 | 0.78 | 0.88 |
| Between-song consistency | 0.91 (0.01) | 0.89 (0.01) | 0.89 (0.01) | 0.034* | 0.95 | 0.039* |
The song sparrow’s song has a complex viable trait that is important for the assessment of signals for affecting male choice for male territory and female choice. In order to determine whether there is distensible difference between the signals song sparrows are displaying at different ages first there must be measurable changes between the different ages. Secondly there must be substantiable reasoning that other song-sparrows can distributism between the different signals represented. Through the studies several characteristics of song sparrow song exhibit age-related change, these changes can be most significantly noticeable difference from the ages one to two. Through the study there was a substantial evidence that birds could noticeable recognize the differences between a first and a second years signal but are unlikely to distinguish between two-year-old and three-year-old males. The determining difference between the ages of song birds were the variation in the number of unique notes sung in the most common variant and singing rate which a song sparrow can produce. Unique notes, common variant and signing rate, are the three components that explain the bulk of variation in male song sparrows songs discovered over the years. Therefore, if signal receivers discriminate males’ songs based on age, they would likely use some combination of differences in these three variables, verse in this study research shows that distinguishable factors between ages, is less about trying to display lesser signs of aggression, but instead the distinguishable factors between ages is a song sparrows ability to produce more complex songs and have a great ability to display more range of songs. The findings within the study between-song consistency and within-song stereotypy also do not match expectations of increased quality with age, unlike what has been seen across many species of songbirds. As the study went on the distensibility between ages grew shorter and shorter, only really seeing noticable difference between first year and second year, which can be explain through a lack of practice, and development of a variety of notes.
References
All About Birds. (n.d.). Song Sparrow overview. Cornell Lab of Ornithology. Retrieved October 25, 2024, from https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Song_Sparrow/overview
British Columbia Conservation Data Centre. (n.d.). Melospiza melodia: Song Sparrow. British Columbia Ministry of Environment. https://a100.gov.bc.ca/pub/eswp/speciesSummary.do?id=18025
Dunn, J. L., & Alderfer, J. (2006). National Geographic field guide to the birds of North America (4th ed.). National Geographic.
Marshall, D. (2009). Map of the subspecies of Song Sparrows (Melospiza melodia) in western North America [Map]. ResearchGate. https://www.researchgate.net/figure/Map-of-the-subspecies-of-Song-Sparrows-Melospiza-melodia-in-western-North-America-with_fig1_50914233
Richards, R. (2010, March 15). Song Sparrow (Melospiza melodia). BirdAZ. http://birdaz.com/blog/song-sparrow-melospiza-melodia/#:~:text=Adult%2C%20subspecies%20morphna%3A%20Tail%20feathers,outer%20webs%20of%20tertials%20rusty.
Greene, E., & Fleischer, R. (2009). Population genetic structure of Song Sparrows in western North America. The American Naturalist, 173(5), 000–000. https://doi.org/10.1086/599298
Miller, M. P., Funk, W. C., Mullins, T. D., Haig, S. M., & Murphy, M. T. (2019). Population connectivity and conservation of song sparrows on isolated islands. Journal of Avian Biology, 50(8), 1–13. https://doi.org/10.1111/jav.02872
Sibley, D. A. (2003). The Sibley field guide to birds of western North America (2nd ed.). Knopf.
Wingfield, J. C., Ball, G. F., Dufty, A. M., Hegner, R. E., & Ramenofsky, M. (1987). Testosterone and Aggression in Birds. American Scientist, 75(6), 602–608. http://www.jstor.org/stable/27854889