Swamp Sparrow

About the Swamp Sparrow

The swamp sparrow (Melospiza georgiana) is a medium-sized New World sparrow related to the song sparrow. Measurements: Length: 4.7–5.9 in (12–15 cm) Weight: 0.5–0.8 oz (15–23 g) Wingspan: 7.1–7.5 in (18–19 cm) Adults have streaked rusty, buff and black upperparts with an unstreaked gray breast, light belly and a white throat. The wings are strikingly rusty. Most males and a few females have rust-colored caps. Their face is gray with a dark line through the eye. They have a short bill and fairly long legs. Immature birds and winter adults usually have two brown crown stripes and much of the gray is replaced with buff.

Swamp sparrows breed across the northern United States and boreal Canada. The southern edge of their breeding range coincides largely with the Line of Maximum Glaciation. A small number of morphologically distinct birds inhabit tidal marshes from northern Virginia to the Hudson River Estuary. This subspecies (M. g. nigrescens) winters in coastal marshes of the Carolinas and differs from the two inland swamp sparrow subspecies in having more black in a grayer overall plumage, larger bill, different songs, and a smaller average... Wikipedia →