How to Identify aHouse Sparrow
Passer domesticus · 5.9–6.7 in (15–17 cm)
Male vs. female
Male
Gray crown, chestnut nape, black bib and throat, and a pale gray cheek.
Female
Plain buff-brown with a pale eyebrow stripe and a streaked back; no bib.
Male photo: Rhododendrites / Wikimedia, CC BY-SA 4.0 · Female photo: Alan Vernon / Wikimedia, CC BY 2.0
Field marks
- Stocky body with a thick seed-eating bill
- Male black bib (larger in dominant birds)
- Chestnut and gray head pattern in males
- Female plain with a buffy eyebrow
Similar species
What it sounds like
A monotonous series of "cheep" and "chirrup" notes, endlessly repeated from gutters and hedges.
Behaviour that gives it away
Bathes in dry dust as well as water, working soil through its feathers in shallow scrapes.
Habitat & range
Cities, towns, farms, and feeders almost everywhere people live — an introduced species.
When you'll see it
Present all year in North America.
What it eats
Seeds, grain, and scraps; highly adaptable around human food.
Did you know?
One of the world's most widespread wild birds, carried nearly everywhere by human settlement.
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