How to Identify aSavannah Sparrow
Passerculus sandwichensis · 4.3–5.9 in (11–15 cm)
Male vs. female
Male
Brown and heavily streaked above and below, with a yellow patch before the eye, a pale crown stripe and pink legs. Sexes look alike.
Female
Identical to the male in the field.
Male photo: Cephas / Wikimedia, CC BY-SA 3.0 · Second photo: Chuck Homler, Focus On Wildlife / Wikimedia, CC BY-SA 4.0
Field marks
- Yellow patch between the bill and eye
- Crisp fine streaking on white underparts
- Short, notched tail
- Pale central crown stripe
Similar species
What it sounds like
A high, insect-like "tsip-tsip-tseeee-tsaaay", buzzy and easily mistaken for a grasshopper.
Behaviour that gives it away
Runs mouse-like through grass rather than flying when disturbed, dropping out of sight the moment it lands.
Habitat & range
Grasslands, hayfields, tundra, salt marsh and roadside verges across North America.
When you'll see it
Depending on where in North America you are, it is a summer visitor that arrives to breed and a passage migrant, seen mainly in spring and autumn.
What it eats
Insects in summer, seeds the rest of the year.
Did you know?
It varies so much across its range that nineteen subspecies are recognised, including the very pale saltmarsh birds of the Atlantic coast.
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