It was a delight to turn on my little window speaker each morning recently and be serenaded by a Fox Sparrow.
Southern Wisconsin is just on the border of their year-round range, but many of these birds spend the summer breeding season in Canada and the Pacific Northwest. I usually only see Fox Sparrows in my yard in the spring and fall if they show up at all.
This handsome fellow hung around in our yard for about 10 days along with a migrating flock of Dark-eyed Juncos and White-throated Sparrows.
The first day he arrived I verified with the Merlin app that what I thought I was hearing was indeed a Fox Sparrow. Then I searched for him.
Fox Sparrows like to jump back and forth in leaf litter kicking up seeds. They prefer dense cover, so with my binoculars I looked under all of our arborvitaes and other shrubs. That’s where he was!
For the next week I tossed millet under those shrubs to entice him to stay around a little longer. I’d like to think it worked!
