When I glanced at this bird in our lawn the other day, I just assumed it was a Fox Sparrow. A pair of Fox Sparrows spent the winter in our neighborhood, and visited our arborvitaes and feeders almost daily. After watching him for a few minutes I changed my mind. Fox Sparrows are shy and prefer feeding near the cover of shrubs. This bird was way too comfortable hopping around in the middle of the yard.
I grabbed the binoculars and instead recognized a Song Sparrow. Song Sparrows are quite common in this area (and throughout North America for that matter), but I can count on one hand the number of times I’ve seen one in my yard in the last 20 years.
My neighborhood is full of majestic oak and hickory trees, and Song Sparrows prefer open areas like fields, marshes or suburban lawns. I think that’s why we don’t see a lot of robins around here either. It’s a little too “woodsy” for them. Where I grew up, you couldn’t spit without hitting a robin in the summer, but now I’m lucky if I see a half-dozen of them a year.
Sometimes I get nostalgic for the common birds like robins and my little Song Sparrow visitor, but those feelings are easily washed away each May when the air is full of warbler songs and the oak trees are decorated with Scarlet Tanagers and Rose-breasted Grosbeaks.