Illustration © David Allen Sibley.
Learn more about these drawings.
Text © Kenn Kaufman, adapted from
Lives of North American Birds
Photo: Brian E. Small/Vireo
Black-chinned Sparrow
Spizella atrogularis
| Conservation status | Fairly common in its habitat, numbers probably stable. |
|---|---|
| Family | New World Sparrows |
| Habitat | Brushy mountain slopes, open chaparral, sagebrush. Found mostly in arid scrub on hillsides, from low foothills up to almost 7,000' in mountains, in chaparral and open thickets of manzanita, scrub oak, sagebrush, chamise, and other low shrubs. In winter also found locally in desert areas, mesquite thickets. |
Photo Gallery
Feeding Behavior
Does most of its foraging on the ground, often moving about slowly and spending much time feeding in a limited area. Also forages up in low shrubs. Except when nesting, often forages in small, loose flocks, sometimes associated with other sparrows.
Eggs
2-4, sometimes 5. Very pale blue, often unmarked, sometimes dotted with dark brown. Incubation probably about 13 days, and may be mostly by female. Young: Both parents bring food to the young. Age at which the young leave the nest is not well known.
Young
Both parents bring food to the young. Age at which the young leave the nest is not well known.
Diet
Probably seeds and insects. Diet is not well known; probably eats mostly seeds in winter, many insects in summer, like related sparrows. Probably feeds its young mostly on insects.
Nesting
Often nests in small loose colonies. Male sings in spring to defend nesting territory. Nest site is close to ground (from a few inches up to 4' high) in a low shrub, often a sagebrush. Nest is a shallow open cup made of dry grass, weed stems, yucca fibers, lined with fine grass, plant fibers, sometimes feathers or animal hair.
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- All Seasons - Common
- All Seasons - Uncommon
- Breeding - Common
- Breeding - Uncommon
- Winter - Common
- Winter - Uncommon
- Migration - Common
- Migration - Uncommon
Songs and Calls
The beautiful song is a series of slurred notes, either swee? swee? or chew chew chew, running together into a rapid canary-like trill.How climate change could affect this bird's range
In the broadest and most detailed study of its kind, Audubon scientists have used hundreds of thousands of citizen-science observations and sophisticated climate models to predict how birds in the U.S. and Canada will react to climate change.
Read more: climate.audubon.org
Each map is a visual guide to where a particular bird species may find the climate conditions it needs to survive in the future. We call this the bird’s “climatic range.”
The colors indicate the season in which the bird may find suitable conditions— blue for winter, yellow for summer (breeding), and green for where they overlap (indicating their presence year-round).
The darker the shaded area, the more likely it is the bird species will find suitable climate conditions to survive there.
The outline of the approximate current range for each season remains fixed in each frame, allowing you to compare how the range will expand, contract, or shift in the future.
The first frame of the animation shows where the bird can find a suitable climate today (based on data from 2000). The next three frames predict where this bird’s suitable climate may shift in the future—one frame each for 2020, 2050, and 2080.
You can play or pause the animation with the orange button in the lower left, or select an individual frame to study by clicking on its year.
Black-chinned Sparrow In the News More News
Podcast
How Desert Birds Can Survive With Very Little Water
No liquid? No problem for these hardy species.
