Chipping Sparrow FOY (first of year)

For this Stokes Feeder Friday, I wanted to share this video we took. This morning we had a Chipping Sparrow, FOY, first we've seen of the year. It just returned from migration. Welcome back! Here's a video of a Chipping Sparrow eating mixed seeds, especially millet, from our platform feeder. Chipping Sparrows like to eat from the ground, or platforms.

What I like about Chipping Sparrows is that they breed, happily, and often unobtrusively, in suburban areas, or open woodlands throughout much of the country. Their song is a uniform trill, listen for it. The rusty cap and black eye-stripe are good ID clues. We once saw a Chipping Sparrow nest, a little grass cup in a shrub, that had a lining of fine copper wire, most unusual! Look for Chipping Sparrows in your own yard, now, or soon to arrive.