Melospiza melodia
Order Passeriformes
Family Passerellidae
Adult.— Upper parts brown, the back streaked with darker brown; top of head reddish-brown, with streaks of gray through centre and over each eye; breast and sides streaked with reddish-brown, the streaks generally coalescing to form a large spot in the centre of the breast; two other large spots at the sides of the throat; tail rather long.
The Song Sparrow is a common permanent resident in the lower Hudson Valley and in southern Connecticut and Rhode Island; it winters not uncommonly in the edges of marshes or in piles of brush along the Massachusetts coast. In the rest of New York and New England the Song Sparrow is an abundant summer resident, arriving early in March and remaining through October. Where the bird winters, its song may be heard on mild days, even in the winter months, and especially during the latter part of February, but in general its song is one of the signs of spring.
From about the middle of July, through the late summer and fall, the Song Sparrow utters from the weeds or cornfields a low warbling song, quite different from the ordinary sprightly song. The ordinary alarm-note of the Song Sparrow is a sharp tschik; another very common note may be written sst; White-throats and Fox Sparrows both utter notes similar to the last, but slightly heavier. The song is subject to endless variation in the species, and varies to a considerable degree even in the same individual, but it commonly begins with three brisk notes or pairs of notes, whit, whit, whit, or o-lit o-lit o-lit, and in the middle of the song there is apt to be a harsh burring note, after which the song runs quickly out to some ending.
The Song Sparrow is found wherever there are bushes, but particularly near water. It is a brisk, active bird, but not at all fond of the open, diving headlong into the nearest tangle when alarmed. When in the bushes it is continually hopping about, with jerking movements of wing and tail. Only when preening its feathers after a bath, or when singing from the top of some low tree, does it sit quiet. (See under Vesper Sparrow, and under Savannah Sparrow.)
Hoffmann – A Guide to the Birds of New England and Eastern New York (1904)