An Invasive Maple Came to the U.S. Centuries Ago

Norway maple, classified as highly invasive in the United States, was first imported from Europe and Asia in 1756 as an ornamental landscaping tree.

Is an Amur maple shrub invasive?

It Takes Lots of Sap to Make Maple Syrup

It takes about 40 gallons of sap to make 1 gallon of syrup. Sugar maples are the biggest sap producers, so they are favored by maple sugar makers. Depending on the soil, climate and its genetics, a maple tree needs to be about 10 inches in diameter before it will produce enough sap to make syrup.

Psst—here’s why you need an oak tree in your backyard.

Maple Trees Grow Taller Than You Think

Some sugar maple trees can grow up to 150 feet tall! Most, according to the New England Forestry Foundation, reach heights of between 80 and 100 feet.

Check out the top 10 fast-growing trees you can add to your yard.

There Are Many Maple Species in the World

There are 132 species of maple trees in the world, mostly native to Asia. In North America, you’ll find 13 native species of maple trees. Red maples are the most widespread, and silver maples are a common choice for planting, too.

Maple Trees Can Live Hundreds of Years

Long-lived hardwoods, some maple trees in North America are over 300 years old. Red maples, however, have an average lifespan of 80 to 100 years, while certain silver maple trees can live to be 130.

Psst—avoid these trees you should never grow in your yard.

Maple Trees Are Widespread

Maple trees have the longest continuous range of any tree in North America, spanning 1,900 miles up the East Coast. They can grow at elevations from sea level up to 3,000 feet.

Red Maples Can Withstand Extreme Cold

Red maples tolerate the widest range of climatic conditions of any maple. They can tolerate temperatures down to -40 degrees Fahrenheit. This makes the maple leaf a perfect choice for the Canadian flag—and Canada is the only country to feature the maple leaf on its flag.

Done reading maple tree facts? Next, learn fascinating facts about conifer trees.

Sources

• New England Forestry Foundation, “Meet the Sugar Maple“
• Nashville Tree Conservation Corps, “How Many Kinds of Maple Trees Are There?“
• National Wildlife Federation, “Red Maple“
• Forestwildlife.org
• USDA.gov, “Red Maple“

White-Crowned Sparrow

The white-crowned sparrow breeds along the Pacific Coast, in western mountains and across Canada and Alaska, and winters in much of the United States and Mexico. This bird has a gray body with a crisply patterned brown back. Adults have bold black-and-white head stripes. Rich rusty brown and gray head stripes are found on immature birds.

The bird’s head may be slightly peaked. The white-crowned sparrow’s bill varies from pinkish to yellow.

Its song also varies by region, but it generally it incorporates pure initial whistled notes, followed by jumbled whistles ending with buzzing trills.

Learn fascinating sparrow facts you should know.

White-Throated Sparrow

The white-throated sparrow breeds across Canada and the northeastern United States. It spends winter mostly in the eastern states, with fewer in the Southwest and Pacific Coast. A white throat patch contrasts with a gray body, and it has brown patterned wings and a brown back.

Its head stripes may be brown and gray or black and white, it has yellow patches between eyes and bill, and its bill is grayish in color.

To identify this sparrow by ear, listen for a pure thin rolling whistle of Oh, sweet Canada, Canada, Canada.

Learn how to identify and attract a chipping sparrow.

Difference Between These Sparrows

Visually, the clearest difference between the white-crowned sparrow and the white-throated sparrow is the presence of yellow feathers between the white-throated’s eyes. Those yellow feathers stand out when looking at the bird, especially with binoculars.

In addition, most white-crowned sparrows lack the white feathers at the throat that give the white-throated sparrow its name.

While their ranges share significant overlap, the white-throated sparrow doesn’t usually reside in many western states, including Utah, Idaho, Nevada, and Oregon with the exception of the Pacific coast.

When you’re done telling the difference between white-crowned vs white-throated sparrows, learn to distinguish between downy and hairy woodpeckers.

Sources

• All About Birds: “White-Crowned Sparrow,” “White-Throated Sparrow“

Apple Scab Disease Symptoms

“I have several apple trees, which usually have had good crops. But in recent years there weren’t as many spring blossoms, leaves were dropping in summer and no leaves remained by fall. What’s going on?” asks Birds & Blooms reader James Elliston of Delton, Michigan.

Gardening expert Melinda Myers says, “It sounds as if your trees are suffering from apple scab. This fungal disease is a common problem on apple, crabapple, hawthorn, mountain ash and pear trees, though some newer apple varieties have been bred to be resistant to this disease.

Warm, rainy spring and summer weather creates the ideal conditions for this disease. You’ll first notice olive-green to black spots on the leaves. These may merge, cover the leaves and cause them to drop. Repeated leaf loss early in the season can stress the tree, making it more susceptible to other problems and decreased fruit production.

Learn out other common tree diseases (and what to do about them).

How to Prevent Apple Scab Disease

Melinda says, “Reduce potential future infections by doing fall cleanup of infected leaves. Proper pruning—opening up the canopy to allow the leaves to dry more quickly—reduces the risk of this disease while boosting fruit production. Replacing scab-susceptible tree varieties with more resistant ones is another long-term solution.

Consider adding a few to your landscape if space allows. Once the new plants reach fruiting size, you can remove the other trees.”

Here’s how to identify emerald ash borer damage.

Apple Scab Disease Treatment

Melinda adds, “Finally, some fruit growers opt to treat apple scab with a fungicide. This must be done before the disease starts and throughout the season, to protect the plant from infection. Always make sure to read and follow all label directions if you choose to use a chemical control.”

Next, learn how to get rid of powdery mildew.

About the Expert

Melinda Myers is the official gardening expert for Birds & Blooms. She is a TV/radio host, author and columnist who has written more than 20 gardening books. Melinda earned a master’s degree in horticulture from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Sources

• University of Wisconsin-Madison Division of Extension – Apple Scab

How Birds Use Their Senses to Find Food

Does a porcelain berry taste like a blueberry to a gray catbird? Does a block of lard smell like frying bacon to a northern flicker? The short answer is no. While some avian species do have a well-adapted sense of taste or smell, they can’t distinguish between flavors and odors the way humans can. “They’re not picking up every ingredient in the suet you put out,” says José Ramírez-Garofalo, an ornithology researcher at Rutgers University in New Jersey and the director of Freshkills Biological Station in Staten Island, New York.

Can Birds Taste Their Food?

In general, birds have a primitive sense of taste that lets them know when something is salty or bitter. This likely helps them gather essential nutrients like sodium while steering clear of toxic compounds.

So what does this mean for the daily buffet you provide for your feathered visitors? “I would be more concerned with nutritional content than flavor,” José says. Some species will gravitate toward certain foods over others, even if you think you’re giving them a more delectable option. For example, western bluebirds will go wild for protein-rich mealworms because they’re insectivores. Orioles will get their beaks deep in jelly or marmalade because they typically forage for high-energy fruits.

“We try to accommodate as many different birds as we can in our yard, and mealworms seem to be a favorite food. Our cardinals also enjoy a mixture of peanut butter and seeds in a log feeder,” says Birds & Blooms reader Nancy Brown.

Muted taste buds can also be a boon. Birds can consume capsaicin, the fiery extract in peppers, without spontaneously combusting. “They don’t get the same explosion of spice that mammals do,” José says. So it’s all right to add basic cayenne powder to birdseed and suet: The heat should deter squirrels and bears and allow the birds to come back for more.

Can Birds Smell Their Food?

While taste and smell go hand in hand for humans, the two senses don’t seem as inextricable in avian species. In fact, birds show a lot of variability in their olfactory powers, José says. Scavengers like turkey vultures can sniff out stinky chemicals that waft off carcasses from miles away (note that black vultures don’t share the same ability).

Tubenoses, which include albatrosses, shearwaters and other far-flying seabirds, use the hypersensitive cavities on their beaks to smell krill and fish and even to navigate open stretches of ocean.

Often, birds use odors to communicate with one another. Dark-eyed juncos drop clues about their physique in the compounds they secrete in their preen oil. Male crested auklets do something similar when they’re trying to attract a female—by emitting a perfume that smells like tangerines.

That’s not to say that your feeders will smell like a heady citrusy cologne after the cardinals, chickadees and grackles clear them out.

Why Do Hummingbirds Eat Sweet Foods?

In ancient evolutionary history, birds weren’t able to sample sweetness. That is, until hummingbirds cracked the syrupy code. Genetic studies on the well-known nectar sippers show that they adapted taste receptors for savory foods into sugar detectors. The switch helped them shift to a carbohydraterich diet, adding a big calorie boost to their frenzied lives.

Now, scientists think songbirds might have made a similar upgrade to their palates, which could explain why waxwings gorge on berries and orioles adore jelly.

Bird Eyesight

The term “eagle-eyed” for sharp vision is no accident. As birding experts Kenn and Kimberly Kaufman explain, nearly all birds see at least two or three times as much detail as humans, making them able to spot food—or approaching predators—that much farther away. Most birds have excellent color vision, too. Night birds like owls may have a biological trade-off: They see very well in dim light, but their perception of colors may not be as good.

Another advantage birds have is seeing ultraviolet light. To humans, male and female northern mockingbirds look exactly the same—but birds are able to tell the difference because the two have different ultraviolet markings.

Because their eyes are on the sides of their heads, most birds take in two separate pictures of their world, one on each side, with only a limited area of two-eyed vision toward the front. That means while they see lots of detail, it is harder for them to judge distance on the sides until they move their heads.

And birds’ eyes process information much faster than human eyes. When you watch a film, the projector may show 24 frames every second, but your eyes blend them together so you see smooth, continuous motion on the screen. For a bird, the same film would look like a quick series of separate pictures. This rapid visual judgment is very helpful for a bird zooming among tree branches, for example.

About the Expert

José Ramírez-Garofalo is an ornithology researcher and Ph.D. candidate in the Lockwood Lab at Rutgers University in New Jersey. Jose also serves as the director of science and research development with Freshkills Park Alliance on Staten Island, New York.

Sources

• National Library of Medicine: The Avian Taste System
• National Library of Medicine: Birds Generally Carry a Small Repertoire of Bitter Taste Receptor Genes
• North American Bluebird Society: Mealworms Factsheet
• LibreTexts Biology: Taste and Smell – Tastes and Odors
• All About Birds – Do vultures find dead animals by smell or by tracking predators or scavengers on the ground?
• Scientific Reports – Olfactory-cued navigation in shearwaters: linking movement patterns to mechanisms
• ResearchGate: Intraspecific preen oil odor preferences in Dark-eyed Juncos (Junco hyemalis)
• University of Alaska Fairbanks: Bird feathers and the smell of tangerines
• eLife: Complementary shifts in photoreceptor spectral tuning unlock the full adaptive potential of ultraviolet vision in birds
• Science: Complementary shifts in photoreceptor spectral tuning unlock the full adaptive potential of ultraviolet vision in birds
• Science: Early origin of sweet perception in the songbird radiation

When Do Russian Sage Plants Bloom?

Fall often brings mixed emotions for gardeners. While there’s still plenty to do, sometimes it’s hard not to wish that summer’s colors lasted a little longer. In some cases, that’s the truth: Russian sage, a popular pick for pollinators, keeps its gorgeous blooms from midsummer through mid-fall. Here’s what you should know about adding this multi-season, hardy plant to your yard.

Russian Sage Care and Growing Tips

Scientific name: Perovskia atriplicifolia
Growing zones: 5 to 9
Light needs: Full sun
Size: 3 to 4 feet tall and nearly as wide
Grown for: Low-maintenance color in dry landscapes
Foliage: Gray-green leaves

This perennial packs oodles of color, with lavender and blue blooms that appear in July and thrive into October. The Russian sage plant’s lacy leaves sprout off woody stems; just plant it in a sunny spot with well-draining soil. To avoid having to stake, place the plant behind a sturdy companion to keep it upright. Prune plants back to 4 inches in late winter or early spring for more compact growth, or grow a compact variety.

Check out 10 purple perennials to plant for beauty each year.

Benefits of Growing Russian Sage

Many classic hummingbird flowers conclude their growing season in late summer and early fall, but not Russian sage! Migrating hummingbirds need nectar sources to fuel their incredible journeys south, so encourage them to stop by and fill up with this late-season bloomer.

As if the hummingbird benefits aren’t enough, this plant offers some sweet scents, too. One of the reasons we love it is that the fragrant foliage adds a bit of aromatherapy to spring garden cleanup. And finally, it’s a tried-and-true trooper; besides being deer- and rabbit-resistant, it tolerates heat, wind, drought and poor soil.

Cultivars to Try

Blue Jean Baby features blue tones and shorter stalks, or enjoy Denim ’n Lace’s bright, purple-blue flowers for color well into autumn.

Sources

• Walter’s Gardens, Inc.
• Proven Winners
• Monrovia
• Missouri Botanical Garden
• Gardening Know How

Goth Gardening for the Spooky Season

With spooky season upon us and the fiery colors of fall in full splendor, now is the perfect time for Goth gardening to emerge from the shadows. This quirky trend is full of mysterious options that you can choose to make your area as dramatic as you wish.

Hearing “Goth garden” may conjure thoughts of murky paths with growling gargoyles, and it can be just that—if that’s your style. But it can also take a more stately route—think Gothic architecture, Victorianesque statues and grand chandeliers. Here are just a few elements to help evoke your eeriest inspiration!

Check out the top 10 dark colored flowers that are almost black.

Light Your Gothic Garden With Spooky Lanterns

Incorporate rich, velvety tones to set a decadent mood, and top it off with whimsical lanterns.

Discover surprising fall flower facts and folklore stories.

Try a Fancy Fountain as a Focal Point

An ornate fountain makes a magnificent centerpiece—and can even double as a birdbath!

Ready to get in the Halloween spirit? Learn how to grow pumpkins and gourds.

Add Dark Drama With Wrought Iron

Classic wrought iron fencing and furniture are perfect for Gothic gardens. Just make sure it’s painted black!

Grow Plants With Black Foliage

The shiny, ruffled foliage of Primo Black Pearl coral bells adds a touch of fanciful charm to a Gothic garden.

As a yummy bonus, dark edible plants such as Black Pearl pepper or Dark Opal basil can complement your space too. While you can eat these, they also thrill your desire for black ornamental flair.

Also try these other black annual and perennial plants.

Decorate With Vintage Statues

The weathered stone of vintage urns and statues, like these angels, creates a timeless look.

Next, meet the black birds that are always dressed for Halloween.

Sources

• NPR
• National Garden Bureau
• Proven Winners

Help Wildlife by Planting a Prairie Garden

Think Little House on the Prairie—but in your yard. Those who’ve read pioneer Laura Ingalls Wilder’s magnum opus can envision the breathtaking beauty of the prairie through her simple yet detailed prose.

In the chapter “Prairie Days,” Wilder writes, “There was only the enormous, empty prairie, with grasses blowing in waves of light and shadow across it, and the great blue sky above it, and the birds flying up from it and singing with joy because the sun was rising.” What a heartwarming homage.

Prairie plant proponents know that they provide picturesque additions to backyard gardens. Better yet, they produce plenty of benefits for birds, bees, pollinators and other local wildlife, and they do so from early spring through late fall.

Understanding the Prairie Ecosystem

Prairies are substantial tracts of flat grassland that dominate the Midwest. According to the National Park Service, nearly a third of North America was once covered in grassland.

When people hear “prairie,” many may imagine farm fields growing golden wheat. Farming aside, this habitat’s plants evolved to tolerate cold winters, warm summers and environmental disturbances. They’re well-adapted to maximize photosynthesis and minimize water loss.

Prairie soils can vary in composition—clay, sandy or loamy. They can also have very different levels of moisture—dry, moderate (or mesic) and moist. Knowing your soil type will help you identify the perfect prairie garden plants for your yard.

Basic Principals of Prairie Planting

These plants, including prairie grasses, are important food sources for birds and caterpillars, according to Marlene Pantin, partnership manager for the National Audubon Society’s Plants for Birds program. To combine beauty with benefit, choose native plants.

“They co-evolved with area birds, making both well adapted,” Marlene says. More important, she adds, they “require less water and, over time, less maintenance.”

To receive lasting benefit from this ecosystem’s fantastic flora, find flowers that provide different shapes, colors, nectar and pollen to create a rich ecosystem for wildlife across seasons.

“You look like a rock star if you have something blooming at the end of the year,” says Esther E. McGinnis, horticulturist and associate professor at the North Dakota State University Extension. “It looks good while also being environmentally sustainable.”

Based on extensive pollinator research, Esther advises prairie gardeners to incorporate blooming plants in blocks. “Pollinators can find them better if we plant en masse. It’s also more worth it for the bees who come in.”

While birds benefit from the seeds, bugs and nest-building material that prairie plants provide, pollinators receive immense help as well. “Have something blooming from earliest spring to the hard frost,” Esther suggests. This provides pollinators with carbohydrates and bees with pollen, plus a protein source for their young.

Various birds and bugs benefit from water being available year-round, so consider adding a water feature to your prairie space to welcome more visitors. To make water features pollinator friendly, add stones that extend above the water line.

“This allows the bees and butterflies to land at water level and sip. If they landed on the water, they’d break the surface tension and drown,” Esther says.

Leverage Your Local Extension

All 50 states have land grant universities, in addition to Washington, D.C., and six U.S. territories. These universities have local extension agents who work to support their communities. These professionals translate botanical research, among other information, into practical advice. Contact your local extension for gardening guidance.

Prairie Garden Plants to Grow

• Little bluestem: Attracts birds, even game birds, and blooms in late summer into early fall.
• Butterfly weed: Monarch butterflies’ host plant and a food source for butterflies, bees and hummingbirds. Blooms early to late summer.
• Aromatic aster: Attracts pollinators and birds. Blooms late summer to fall and can be aggressive and overwhelm small spaces.
• Joe Pye weed: Attracts pollinators and birds. Blooms summer to fall.
• Switchgrass: Seeds are eaten by songbirds and game birds. Blooms late summer to fall. The species can reseed prolifically and spread, but the cultivars tend to remain more contained.
• False sunflower: Attracts pollinators and birds. Blooms early summer to midfall.
• Purple coneflower: Attracts goldfinches, bees and butterflies. Blooms midsummer to early fall.
• Rosy sedge: No-maintenance ground cover or turf alternative. Host plant for various butterflies and moths, and blooms early to midsummer

Fall in the Prairie Garden

Fall cleanup is ingrained in gardeners’ minds. However, leaving a less disturbed landscape supports local wildlife. Avoid removing healthy grasses and flowering plants, as well as unraked leaves and fallen branches. This provides birds with foraging and nest-building opportunities—in addition to shelter for other wildlife.

About the Experts

Associate professor Esther E. McGinnis is a master gardener and program director with North Dakota State University (NDSU) Extension. Esther has a Ph.D in applied plant sciences from the University of Minnesota.

Marlene Pantin works as the partnerships manager for the National Audubon Society’s Plants for Birds program; previously co-founded the Brooklyn Parks and Open Spaces Coalition, an advocacy and networking organization for parks and open space groups in Brooklyn, New York. Marlene has a Ph.D. from Columbia University.

Sources

• The Wilds, Prairie Habitat Creation
• Little House on the Prairie, Naturalist Article
• Little House on the Prairie, Gardening Archives
• Little House on the Prairie, The Plants That Laura Knew and Grew
• Little House on the Prairie, First Harper Trophy Edition, 1971
• National Geographic, Encyclopedic Entry, Prairie
• National Park Service, Prairies
• Forest Preserve District, Will County, Bug vs. Insect
• USDA, Land Grant Universities
• APLGU, Land-Grant University FAQ

What Does a Varied Bunting Look Like?

Less well-known than its bunting bird family members, the indigo bunting and painted bunting, the male varied bunting is just as stunning. In the breeding season, males are a vibrant purple and red, with a distinctive red eye ring and a black patch near their bill. They are small songbirds, measuring 4 to 5 inches long.

In the non-breeding season, males molt into brownish plumage. Female varied buntings and young males are lighter brown in color, with no visible streaking or wing bars.

Learn how to identify a lazuli bunting.

Varied Bunting Range and Habitat

You’ll only find these birds if you head way down to the southwest. Look for them in the summer breeding season along the southern border of Texas, New Mexico and Arizona. They are short-distance migrants and are year-round residents in Mexico.

Despite their vibrant colors, this species can be hard to spot because they stay low in dense shubby areas, thorny thickets and woods. Varied buntings forage for insects on the ground, so you probably won’t see them at your bird feeders. They also eat some seeds and berries from plants.

Learn what a snow bunting looks like.

Diet: What Does a Varied Bunting Eat?

A varied bunting’s diet consists of a variety of foods, including insects such as grasshoppers and beetles, seeds, and cactus fruit. “They’ll also peck into larger fruits, they’ll eat pine seeds, and I’m sure whatever seeds and fruits they find,” says David Wiedenfeld, senior conservation scientist with the American Bird Conservancy. “They’ll eat insects in winter, too, if they find them.”

While David says it might be possible for a varied bunting to visit a feeder because indigo buntings do, he emphasizes that such behavior wouldn’t necessarily be routine. “You could have them, but it’s going to be relatively uncommon, and you’re going to have to be in their range,” he says.

Nesting Habits

Female varied buntings build nests a few feet off the ground, using materials such as grasses and wildflowers. A typical clutch size is two to five eggs, and both parents incubate the eggs and feed young.

Blue grosbeak vs indigo bunting: learn how to tell them apart.

Songs and Calls

Bird sounds courtesy of the Cornell Lab of Ornithology 

A varied bunting’s song can sound a bit disorganized. They let out a series of warbling, sometimes-scratchy notes that change in pitch — David refers to it as “complicated.”

The birds’ calls are less complicated. Listen for a high-pitched chirp or chip sound.

About the Expert

As senior conservation scientist for American Bird Conservancy, David Wiedenfeld has worked on research pertaining to bird populations for decades. He served as director of research at the Sutton Avian Research Center, and he also served as head of the department of vertebrate ecology at the Charles Darwin Research Station in the Galapagos Islands. He holds a doctorate in biological science from Florida State University, and his favorite bird is the swallow-tailed kite.

Sources

• Cornell Lab of Ornithology, “Varied Bunting: Life History“
• National Audubon Society Field Guide: “Varied Bunting“

American Tree Sparrow Identification

If you think you’ve seen a chipping sparrow in winter, you might want to take a second look. You may be seeing an American tree sparrow— a winter visitor throughout the central and northern U.S.

Identifying American tree sparrows can be tricky, because some sparrows tend to resemble each other. Looking for a reddish cap, white wing bars, or the presence of a line by the eye might not be enough to distinguish the bird from look-alikes.

“There are some people who will tell you all sparrows look alike, because they have streaking on their back, and wing bars, and they’re mainly brown and rusty,” says David Wiedenfeld, senior conservation scientist with the American Bird Conservancy. “[American tree sparrows] share a lot with a number of other sparrows. Not a lot of bright colors, not a lot of really distinctive marks.”

With that said, David mentions that a good way to tell these specific sparrows apart from similar species like chipping and field sparrows is to look at their breast. “The identifying thing on them is that their breast is pretty much solid-colored with one spot in the middle,” he says.

Learn how to identify white-throated sparrows.

Range and Habitat

Rarely a forest bird, American tree sparrows are most commonly found mostly open areas with a few trees, shrubs, or places to perch. “A lot of them winter in the Great Plains along streams and wherever there are woods and scrubby trees along creeks, and so forth,” David says.

As David points out, American tree sparrows’ migration patterns are unusual. While most birds head for warmer places when cold weather sets in, for these tough sparrows, the United States’ winter is their warmer climate. They spend breeding season in northern Canada only to fly south to much of the Midwestern and Northeastern United States.

Diet: What Do American Tree Sparrows Eat?

Because they tend to settle in suburban environments, American tree sparrows are a relatively common feeder bird. “They’re not uncommon in suburban landscapes where you have people with shrubs in their yards or along their fences, or maybe a creek runs through the neighborhood or something like that,” David says.

Their favorite feeder foods include nyjer (thistle), cracked corn, white proso millet and hulled sunflower seed. Unlike many sparrows, you can find this sparrow eating suet in addition to seed. “They can be pretty common in places where people see them, and if you have a feeder in your yard, they will come to that, as well,” David says.

Nesting Habits

Unless you live in the harsher portions of northern Canada, you won’t likely see an American tree sparrow during breeding season. Their nests are usually found on or near the ground. The female lays four to six eggs, and less than two weeks after hatching, the young birds leave the nest.

Discover more fascinating sparrow facts you should know.

American Tree Sparrow vs Chipping Sparrow

The time of year when you see the birds can be a clue to identifying them. As the seasons change, look for American tree sparrows to replace the chipping sparrows in your backyard.

Chipping sparrows live in the northern United States in summer, migrating to the southern states in fall. American tree sparrows spend summers in the Arctic, appearing south of Canada only from late fall to early spring. The tree sparrow is slightly larger, with more obvious white wing bars. The stripe behind its eye is reddish brown, not black or dark gray as on the chipping sparrow.

Pay attention to different bill colors, as well. They are bicolored black and yellow on tree sparrows, while chipping sparrows’ bills are black in summer and partly dull pink in winter.

American Tree Sparrow Song and Calls

Bird sounds courtesy of the Cornell Lab of Ornithology 

Males sing a cheery-sounding cascade of falling notes, some sung individually, and some jumbled together. Calls are a high-pitched tseet or teedle-eet.

Next, learn how to attract dark-eyed juncos to your backyard.

About The Expert

As senior conservation scientist for American Bird Conservancy, David Wiedenfeld has worked on research pertaining to bird populations for decades. He served as Director of Research at the Sutton Avian Research Center, and he also served as Head of the Department of Vertebrate Ecology at the Charles Darwin Research Station in the Galapagos Islands. He holds a doctorate in biological science from Florida State University, and his favorite bird is the swallow-tailed kite.

Sources

• Cornell Lab of Ornithology, “American Tree Sparrow: Life History“
• Audubon Field Guide, “American Tree Sparrow“