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Friday, April 09, 2010

Chipping Sparrow FOY (first of year)



For this Stokes Feeder Friday, I wanted to share this video we took. This morning we had a Chipping Sparrow, FOY, first we've seen of the year. It just returned from migration. Welcome back! Here's a video of a Chipping Sparrow eating mixed seeds, especially millet, from our platform feeder. Chipping Sparrows like to eat from the ground, or platforms.
What I like about Chipping Sparrows is that they breed, happily, and often unobtrusively, in suburban areas, or open woodlands throughout much of the country. Their song is a uniform trill, listen for it. The rusty cap and black eye-stripe are good ID clues. We once saw a Chipping Sparrow nest, a little grass cup in a shrub, that had a lining of fine copper wire, most unusual! Look for Chipping Sparrows in your own yard, now, or soon to arrive.

5 comments:

Molly Merula said...

: D Super cute! The Chipping Sparrows should be turning up by my house soon, too. ^___^

Do you guys have a recirculating birdbath - the kind that makes splashing noises to attract more birdies? If so, is there a brand that you would recommend? :3

Ruth's Photo Blog said...

I enjoy the Chipping Sparrows in summer.They seem almost friendly.
Blessings,Ruth

Lillian Stokes said...

We do have a bird bath, it can clamp onto your deck,
see here,
http://www.bestnest.com/bestnest/RTProduct.asp?SKU=STK-38018
and a water dripper can be added, see here,
http://www.bird-house-bath.com/d/Avian-Bird-Bath-Dripper.html

LNMP298 said...

I haven't seen them yet, but Chipping Sparrows have nested & raised their young in our yard every year. I often see them from my front porch, hopping around in the grass with their young ones and picking up sunflower seed on the ground. Chipping Sparrows are very endearing little birds!

Marilyn Kircus said...

And I'm looking forward to seeing the last of them. I live in the Texas Hill Country on a new property and, while the goldfinches didn't find me this year, the chipping sparrows did. Then they went out and told their friends there was a easy living to be had here. They ate a couple of hundred dollars of seed and then had the audacity to eat my native grass seed - I planted four species and the lance leaf coreopsis seed. I still have maybe 10 and am hoping they will be gone so I can replant all my seed. But I did enjoy them over the winter.