Black-chinned Sparrow

Overview

Black-chinned Sparrow: Medium sparrow, plain, dark gray with brown-streaked back, pale gray belly, black chin and pale eyestripe. Bill is pink. The legs and feet are yellow-gray. Forages in brush and on ground. Short flights on rapidly beating wings alternating with periods of wings pulled to sides.

Range and Habitat

Black-chinned Sparrow: Breeds from south central California east to southern Nevada and southwest Utah, south to Arizona, New Mexico, western Texas, and Mexico. Winters from coastal California, southern Arizona, New Mexico, and Texas, Baja California and Mexico. Prefers desert, dense sagebrush; in the far west, prefer dry chaparral with a variety of shrubs and scrub oak.

INTERESTING FACTS

Black-chinned Sparrows have suffered from habitat loss and degradation due to overgrazing, mining, and use of off-road vehicles.
Singing males are conspicuous when they sit on top of high bushes; their song carries well through the narrow, brushy canyons they inhabit, but in general they are shy and secretive.
A group of sparrows has many collective nouns, including a "crew", "flutter", "meinie", "quarrel", and "ubiquity" of sparrows.

The Black-chinned Sparrow is a small songbird which lives in areas of brushy hillsides, arid scrublands, sagebrush and chaparral. Breeding grounds span from west Texas to southern California in the southwestern United States. In the winter months, this species migrates to northern-central Mexico and Baja California Sur. However, there is a non-migrating population of Black-chinned Sparrows which resides in central Mexico all year long. This species’ habitat has suffered loss due to mining, overgrazing and off-road vehicles. They typically forage through the brush and on the ground for insects or berries, and their current conservation status is classified as Least Concern.