SPARROWS

Black-chinned Sparrow

SCIENTIFIC NAME: Spizella atrogularis

The Black-chinned Sparrow is a small bird usually difficult to see. This passerine bird is generally found in chaparral, sagebrush, arid scrublands, and brushy hillsides, breeding in the southwestern United States and migrating in winter to north-central Mexico and Baja California Sur.

Males have cinnamon-brown upperparts streaked black, except rump and uppertail-coverts which are gray or olive-gray. The upperwing is dark brown with pale buff-edged feathers.
The lesser coverts are gray. The median coverts show dark brown central area and buffy tips. In breeding plumage, the tips are paler and form a wingbar.
Greater coverts and tertials have blackish center with tawny fringes, and pale buff on tips forming an indistinct second wingbar. The tail is dark grayish-brown.
 
On the underparts, chin and throat are black, mostly grayer outside the breeding season.
Breast and rest of underparts are gray, with pale central belly and undertail-coverts.

Head is gray with black lores, bill base, chin and throat.
The bill is bright pink. The eyes are dark brown. Legs and feet are pinkish.

Females are duller with gray head slightly washed brownish. The black areas are more restricted and grayer.

Juveniles resemble females but lack the black areas of the face. On the upperparts, streaks are narrower and scapulars are tawny-brown. The underparts are variably streaked pale gray.

It is a small bird, measuring 5.5 - 5.9 inches long and weigh 9 - 15 grams.

CALL: Utters high, thin, fairly sharp “tsik” or “seep”.

SONG: An ascending or descending trill “sweet sweet sweet te te te te”.

They eat insects during the breeding season. They pick insects from trees and shrubs as well as from the ground.
In winter they take seeds from grasses and other flowering plants often while perched on a nearby shrub or from the ground.

Frequents dry chaparral in foothills and other similar brushy habitats. They are common in tall, dense sagebrush (Artemisia tridentata) and arid scrublands, often with scattered Yucca.

They also frequent open Juniperus woodlands in rocky areas and arid slopes.

Breeds: The southwestern United States (western Texas to southern California).
Winters: north-central Mexico and Baja California Sur.
There is also a non-migratory population in central Mexico.

The female builds a simple cup-shaped nest made with grasses, yucca fibers, stems, bark, and probably some small twigs and leaves. The inner cup is lined with softer materials.

The female lays 3 - 4 pale greenish eggs with dark scattered spots. She incubates during 10 - 12 days. The chicks are fed by both parents.

SOURCES:
https://en.wikipedia.org
https://www.allaboutbirds.org
http://www.oiseaux-birds.com