TREE SPARROW 1137 



SPIZELLA ARBOREA (Wilson) 



Tree Sparrow* 



PLATE 62 



Contributed by A. Marguerite Baumgartner 



Habits 



To anyone who has tramped our snowy fields and brushy hedgerows 

 in winter, the little tree sparrow is a familiar and beloved bird. One 

 of the most abundant winter residents over much of the northern 

 and central United States, its gentle confiding ways and cheerful 

 warblings have ever endeared it to those who go afield with binoculars 

 or who feed the winter bh"ds about their gardens. Easily identified 

 by its pert chestnut cap, clear gray breast with a single black "brooch," 

 white wmgbars, and a bill dark above and yellow below, the tree 

 sparrow is most frequently confused with its relatives, the somewhat 

 similar but smaller chipping and field sparrows. 



Two geographic races are now recognized, the nominate eastern Spi- 

 zeUa arborea arborea and the western form, ^S. a. ochracea, with a wide belt 

 of intergradation between them through the Prairie Provinces and the 

 Plains States. With no perceptible differences in measurements or in 

 the Juvenal plumage, typical ochracea differs from the eastern race 

 primarily in degree of color, having a slightly paler back, a richer wash 

 of ochraceous buff on the sides, and a heavier veiling of buff on the 

 crown. Although the line of demarcation between the two falls in 

 mid-continent in winter, during the breeding season the eastern race 

 sweeps far westward. It nests from the Atlantic coast to Anderson 

 Valley, almost to the boundary of the Yukon Territory (Preble, 1908), 

 while ochracea breeds across northern MacKenzie and the Yukon, 

 tliroughout Alaska as far north as there is any scrubby growth, and 

 down the mountain ranges of British Columbia in the sparse forests 

 just below timberline. 



The tree sparrow is another example of a misnomer by our pioneer 

 forefathers, for few birds spend less time in trees, either in winter or 

 summer. The early settlers saw in it a superficial resemblance to the 

 chestnut-capped tree sparrow (Passer monianus) of Em"ope and, 

 either in ignorance of specific differences or in nostalgic recollecton, 

 called this little American sparrow by the same name. Actually 

 our tree sparrow might more accurately be called brush sparrow, 

 for its haunts include the scrubby edges of our fields and marshes, 

 hedgerows, and fallow fields. In summer it travels far bej^ond the 

 dense Canadian woodlands to the lake-dotted open forests of the 



*The following subspecies are discussed in these sections: Spizella arlorea 

 arborea (Wilson) and S. a. ochracea Brewster. 



