Swamp Sparrow

(Melospiza georgiana)

Conservation Status
IUCN Red List

LC - Least Concern

NatureServe

N5B, N5N - Secure Breeding and Nonbreeding

SNRB - Unranked Breeding

Minnesota

not listed

 
 
Description

The wings and crown are reddish-brown. The face and breast are gray. There is no dark breast spot. The throat is white. There is a thin black jawline and the throat is outlined with a thin black border.

 

Size

5 to 6 in length

7½ wingspan

 

Voice

 

Similar Species

 
Habitat

Breeding: Marshes, swamps, bogs, meadows, wet brushy fields, lake shores, stream borders

Migration: As above, but also forest edges, thickets, and fields

Ecology

Migration

Late March to late November

 

Nesting

 

 

Food

 

Distribution

Occurrence

Common migrant and breeder

 

Maps

The Minnesota Ornithologists’ Union All Seasons Species Occurrence Map

Taxonomy

Class

Aves (birds)

Order

Passeriformes (perching birds)

Family

Passerellidae (New World sparrows)

Genus

Melospiza (song sparrows)

   

New World sparrows were traditionally combined with buntings into the family Emberizidae. Recent phylogenetic analysis (Barker et al. 2013) and mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) analysis (Klicka et al. 2014) found that the Old World buntings should be separated as a sister to New World sparrows. New World sparrows have been separated into a new family, Passerellidae.

   

Subordinate Taxa

Coastal Plain Swamp Sparrow (Melospiza georgiana nigrescens)

Eastern Swamp Sparrow (Melospiza georgiana georgiana)

Western Swamp Sparrow (Melospiza georgiana ericrypta)

   

Synonyms

Fringilla georgiana

Zonotrichia georgiana

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Camera

Slideshows

Swamp Sparrow
JMC Nature Photos

Swamp Sparrow

Swamp Sparrow (Melospiza georgiana)
Sed Navarro

Swamp Sparrow (Melospiza georgiana)

Swamp Sparrows
Bonnie Ott

Swamp Sparrows

 

slideshow

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Other Videos

Swamp Sparrow
WIld Bird Video Productions

About

Uploaded on May 3, 2011

Swamp sparrow singing in Maine. By Garth McElroy

License at http://www.paya.com/videos/135197

Swamp Sparrow, Melospiza georgiana
Rob Curtis

About

Published on Jul 18, 2014

Swamp Sparrow, Melospiza georgiana bathing, foraging

Swamp Sparrow Portrait 2
Larry Bond

About

Published on Jul 14, 2013

The Swamp Sparrow is fairly common in Canada east of Rockies and the northeastern United States. It breeds in tall vegetation (cattails, bushes, tussocks) in marshes, wet meadows, bogs, streams.

It has a rufous crown, a gray face a white throat. It shows a gray breast and white belly. The rufous wings have no wing bars. It pumps its tail in flight.

The song is a trill similar to Chipping Sparrow's. The calls include a "zee" and a metallic "chip".

Swamp Sparrow Calling
Michigan's Wildlife

About

Published on May 18, 2013

Swamp Sparrow (Emberizidae: Melospiza georgiana) Window-killed Bird
Carl Barrentine

About

Published on May 4, 2012

Migrant species must successfully navigate a myriad of human-made hazards to get from the wintering grounds to the breeding grounds, and back again. This specimen, a window-fatality, wasn't among the fortunate. ;-( Photographed at the Wellness Center, UND campus, Grand Forks, North Dakota (04 May 2012).

 

Camcorder

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