Episode 33: American Tree Sparrow – Voice of the Wild

This is Illinois Extension’s Voice of the Wild. A new wild voice in just a moment, so find someplace quiet, take a deep breath, and enjoy.

This rusty-capped sparrow is a visitor from the far, far north; it nests even beyond the tree line - that place beyond which winter conditions are so extreme that trees simply will not grow. A scattered few will return from that tundra biome starting in October - but they come in force throughout November; just as our fall collapses fully into winter. When startled from their frantic search for seeds below feeders, in snowy pastures, along hedgerows, prairies, and grassy parklands they’ll jump up into the weeds to see the approaching threat. That’s a good opportunity to see the black dot at the center of their pale, plain chest. Look too for their bicolored bill (which is yellow below and black above) and for a rust-red line running through the eye. Despite their name, this sparrow is not particularly fond of trees.

This is the American Tree Sparrow (Spizelloides arborea) from the family of new-world sparrows, Passerellidae.

The American Tree Sparrow’s sweet and variable song… is seldom heard through the thick of winter, but they will sing as the temperatures begin to rise. Their calls, however, are given all throughout, and they have a few. An alarm (A hard “tink",) a softer "tchew" given in flight, and back-and-forth "see-you see-you" when foraging in a flock. At least in my mind these varied calls serve as a reminder that, even on the bitter cold days that send us traipsing through our own snowy footprints...there is life to hear in illinois. Here’s the American tree sparrow again.

Thank you to the Macaulay library at the Cornell lab for the individual songs and calls, and to Paul Driver on Xeno-Canto.org for the flock calls. And thank you for tuning in to learn a new wild voice with Illinois Extension.