BROWN BIRDS SEEN IN NORTH AMERICA

Eurasian Tree Sparrow

SCIENTIFIC NAME: Passer Montanus 

Adults have a chestnut cap and black face with a black spot set in a white cheek.

They are rich brown with dark streaking above and pale grayish-white below.

Juveniles are similar in pattern but much duller in color.

BILL: thick, conical and lead-blue in summer, becoming almost black in winter.

SIZE: measures about 5.5 - 5.9 inches in length, with a wingspan of 7.9 - 8.7 inches.

WEIGHT: weighs about 18 - 28 grams.

COLOR: chestnut, black, white and grayish-white.

Grains, seeds, fruits, flowers, and invertebrates.

Farms, lightly wooded areas (especially with hedgerows and bushes), villages, parks with ornamental plantings, and reedbeds along lakeshores.

Ranges across Europe except southwestern Iberia, southern Greece, and the former Yugoslavia.

It also breeds in Asia east to the Lena River and south to the northern regions of Turkey, the Caucasus, Kazakhstan, Mongolia and Korea.

CALL: Both sexes give a sweet chip call, higher in pitch and more mellifluous than the similar call of House Sparrow, often heard from multiple birds in foraging flocks.

In flight, both sexes give a sharper, less musical "chweep".

SONG: Males sing a long, rhythmic series of chirps and chips during periods of courtship and nesting.

NEST: Both male and female build a cup-shaped nest made of grass and straw, and lined with feathers, hair, cloth, string, and plant matter, which is usually set inside a large, bulky sphere of intertwined grass, straw, and roots accessed via a side entrance or tunnel.

EGGS: 4 - 7 white to pale gray eggs, heavily marked with spots, small blotches or speckling.

They forage singly or in flocks, hopping on the ground to pick up seeds, grain, or insects, sometimes gleaning food from grasses or trees.

Males display in spring and fall, much like House Sparrows, chirping and fluffing the plumage to attract a female.

They gather into flocks in fall through early spring, foraging and roosting communally.

The oldest recorded Eurasian Tree Sparrow in North America was at least 4 years old.



SOURCES:
https://www.birds-of-north-america.net
https://en.wikipedia.org
https://www.allaboutbirds.org