Every spring during a narrow window of time from mid-March to early April, the king of the sparrows makes an appearance at backyard feeders here in Maine.

Larger than any of our commonly occurring sparrows, the fox sparrow is, nevertheless, easy to categorize as one of those “little brown jobs”  we generically call “sparrows.” The term “sparrow,” is also often applied to bird species that are not at all related, like the common house sparrow,  a member of the Old World weaver finch family rather than a subset of the New World emberizines to which species like our song sparrow and fox sparrow belong.

On the other hand, there are some species that are closely related to our sparrows that could rightly sport the moniker but don’t, birds like the dark-eyed junco, for example.

The fox sparrows that migrate through our area are of the widespread northern race best identified by their very reddish breast streaks, back, wings and tail. The gray on their nape and face contrasts strongly with the reddish cap and ear patches.

Birds of this “taiga” race breed from interior Alaska eastward across the Boreal Forest region of Canada to Newfoundland and south to northern Maine (they were not confirmed as breeders in Maine until the 1980s).

The bulk of the population winters in brushy thickets in the southeastern U.S., but occasionally birds overwinter even as far north as southern Maine. Presumably many of the individuals passing through Maine in migration are headed to nesting grounds in Newfoundland, Labrador and Quebec.

Across North America, fox sparrows show some amazing variability, with at least 18 different races recognized. In western Canada and the U.S., various races of fox sparrow breed south through the Rockies to Colorado and along the West Coast to California. These western races are darker and browner and in the case of the southern California race, much thicker-billed than our very reddish-colored “taiga” fox sparrow.

If you want to see a fox sparrow, start by being on the look-out for them, right about now. Small numbers of fox sparrows have been reported by birders across southern Maine in the last week as they move north. Check regularly in the underbrush or under the backyard feeders.

If fox sparrows comparatively larger size and reddish hues don’t give them away to you, watch for their distinctive “hop-scratch” behavior; fox sparrows vigorously scratch the ground using both feet as they look for seeds and insects.

Although one usually doesn’t hear fox sparrows sing much during their short time in the state (save for the few birds breeding in northern Maine), their song is rich series of warbling whistles quite unlike any of other sparrows and is a joy to hear.

In fact, William Brewster, a naturalist from the 19th century, wrote of the fox sparrow song, “At all hours of the day, in every kind of weather late into the brief summer, its voice rises among the evergreen woods filling the air with quivering, delicious melody, which at length dies softly, mingling with the sighing of the wind in the spruces, or drowned by the muffled roar of the surf beating against neighboring cliffs.”
     
Doesn’t that sound like a sparrow fit to be king?

Dr. Jeff Wells is the senior scientist for the Boreal Songbird Initiative. During his time at the famed Cornell Lab of Ornithology and as the Audubon Society's national bird conservation director, Dr. Wells earned a reputation as one of the nation's leading bird experts and conservation biologists. Jeff's grandfather, the late John Chase, was a columnist for the Boothbay Register for many years. Allison Childs Wells, also formerly of the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, is a widely published natural history writer and a senior director at the Natural Resources Council of Maine. Together, they have been writing and teaching people about birds for decades. The Maine natives are authors of the highly acclaimed book, “Maine's Favorite Birds.”