Chipping Sparrow

Spizella passerina
Range Map

Chipping Sparrows have a range that spans most of the North American continent in summer. After the breeding season ends, they migrate to their winter homes in Mexico and the southern USA. They prefer habitat with wooded areas and grassy openings. When nesting season is over, we often find these birds in flocks. Normally they feed on the ground, but will fly out to catch insects when they can.

Today, science recognises five subspecies of Chipping Sparrow:

  • S. p. passerina breeds in North America, east of Minnesota and migrates south to winter in the USA’s southeast and Gulf states.
  • S. p. arizonae breeds in western North America. But they migrate south to winter in California, Nevada, Arizona, Florida, Texas, Baja California, and the highlands of Mexico.
  • S. p. atremaea is resident in the western mountains of Mexico.
  • S. p. mexicana is resident in central and southern Mexico.
  • S. p. pinetorum is resident in northern Central America.

We find Chipping Sparrows every year in Poway during our Christmas Bird Counts. But my meetings with Chipping Sparrows have come from a wide variety of locations in the western USA. I’ve met them in Canada from Lesser Slave Lake in Alberta, south through British Columbia. My meeting in the USA include Montana, Wyoming, Oregon, California, Arizona, New Mexico, and in Texas at Bentsen-Rio Grande State Park.

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