Spizella passerina
Order Passeriformes
Family Passerellidae
Adult.— Crown reddish-brown, a gray line over the eye, a black line through it; cheek gray; back brown, streaked with black; under parts ash-gray; bill black (cinnamon-brownish in winter); tail long and slender, rather deeply notched.
Immature.— Young birds in the first plumage have the breast streaked, in the next they lack the reddish crown.
Nest, always lined with horsehair, placed in a bush, vine, or low tree.
Eggs, bluish, with brown or blackish markings.
The Chipping Sparrow is an abundant summer resident throughout New York and New England, breeding even in the forested regions wherever there are clearings and cultivated ground. It arrives early in April and remains through October. It is common in the village dooryards, about farm buildings, along the roadsides, and in the pasture, especially where there are groves of red cedars. It is unsuspicious, and often comes to the Sparrow doorstep in search of food.
The song is a succession of staccato notes, or rather the same note repeated rather rapidly; the songs of different individuals vary greatly as to time. The song resembles that of the Snowbird, but is drier and less musical; the Swamp Sparrow’s song is still more powerful and musical, while the Pine Warbler’s song is a trill, the notes running lazily into each other. The Chipping Sparrow’s call-note is a slight tsip.
The reddish-brown crown and unstreaked ashy breast distinguish it readily from most of the other sparrows; from its close relative the Field Sparrow it may be told in summer by its black bill and the black line through the eye; in the fall Chipping Sparrows are often seen with reddish-brown bills. There is more black in the Chipping Sparrow’s back and less reddish-brown, so that its back looks darker. From a description of the Swamp Sparrow, one might suppose that it resembles the Chipping Sparrow; as a matter of fact, the latter is so slender and its tail is so long, that even if the two happened to come together as migrants in the spring and fall, one ought to have no difficulty in distinguishing them.
Hoffmann – A Guide to the Birds of New England and Eastern New York (1904)