Spizella breweri
adult
Brewer’s Sparrow is a rather nondescript little songbird with a small, pointed bill. The sexes are similar but there is seasonal and regional plumage variation. Breeding adults have a gray-buff back with dark streaks, and brown wings with two buff wingbars. Birds from the species’ main range have a gray-buff nape; this feature is gray in the so-called “Timberline” Sparrow (subsp. taverneri, from the Pacific Northwest). In all birds, the head pattern comprises a gray-brown crown, dark-framed brown ear coverts, a pale gray supercilium and lores, and a pale throat bordered by a dark malar stripe. The underparts are otherwise pale gray-buff. Non-breeding adults are similar but paler overall and less strikingly marked. Juveniles are similar to a non-breeding adult but heavily streaked; by their first winter, they are like adult birds.
Brewer’s Sparrow is present as a breeding species in western North America, mainly from April to August, with a disjunct population (the so-called “Timberline” Sparrow) found in the Pacific Northwest. Outside the breeding season, birds move south and the winter range extends across southwest U.S.A. and Mexico.
FACT FILE
LENGTH 5.5 in (14 cm)
FOOD Mainly seeds, with invertebrates in spring and summer
HABITAT Sagebrush (Artemisia spp.) habitats and deserts in summer; grassland habitats in winter
STATUS Locally common summer visitor
VOICE Song is a series of trills and warbling whistles. Call is a thin tsik
