Sparrows

With more than 30 subspecies of song sparrows alone, these spunky birds can be hard to spot and harder still to identify. Enjoy sparrow identification made easy with these species profiles.

All About Sparrows

Think telling sparrows apart is just not worth the effort? Our tips might change your mind.

The White-Throated Sparrow is often nicknamed the Canada bird or the Peabody bird, in imitation of a typical song, written as “Oh, sweet Canada, Canada, Canada,” or “Poor Sam Peabody, Peabody, Peabody.”

Song Sparrow

Ornithologists recognize more than 30 subspecies of the remarkably adaptable Song Sparrow. Because song sparrows seem to learn the structure of their music from other song sparrows, local “dialects” are common.

Dark-Eyed Junco

There are more than a dozen recognized “races” of the dark-eyed junco, from the most basic slate-gray with a white breast to those with a swoosh of pink along the flanks, plus lots of variations in between.