Fox Sparrows

 Around mid-September, the Fox Sparrow, one of my favorite sparrows, moves into our part of the Great Central Valley to spend the winter quietly and unassumingly scratching around in the leaf litter covering the ground in brushy woodland-type settings.  


Fox Sparrows (Passerella iliaca) are divided into four regional subspecies, based largely on coloration.  

The dark colored "Sooty" Fox Sparrow (pictured here) breeds in Alaska and the Pacific Northwest, and migrates south into chaparral along the Pacific Coast and the Central Valley for the winter months.  

The "Thick billed" Fox Sparrow breeds predominately in California's Sierra Nevada, and moves south into Southern California during the winter.  (This is the Fox Sparrow that is likely to be encountered during summer in the Sierra.)  

Some "Slate-colored" Fox Sparrows, which breed in the Rocky Mountain region, and "Red" Fox Sparrows, which breed from Alaska to Newfoundland, spend the winter in California as well.  

But in my area, the most common winter Fox Sparrow is the darling Sooty.




Large, dark and chunky, with a beautifully spotted breast, Fox Sparrows spend most of their time foraging on the ground for seeds, doing a sweet little hop-scratch with both feet at once as they rustle around in the leaf litter.  During the winter, Fox Sparrows are generally quiet and solitary, sometimes loosely associating with groups of other sparrows.  

Look for these unassuming beauties in the brushy undergrowth of woodland edges, shrubby fields, riparian and chaparral areas, and even in out-of-the-way and overgrown corners of parks and gardens.


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