Perception Channels: visual ; tactile ; acoustic ; chemical
Swamp sparrows are widespread with a large global population size. They are protected by the U.S. Migratory Bird Act.
US Migratory Bird Act: protected
US Federal List: no special status
CITES: no special status
State of Michigan List: no special status
IUCN Red List of Threatened Species: least concern
There is no specific negative affect to humans.
There is no specific positive benefit to humans.
The swamp sparrow is the most highly insectivorous species in its genus. Its diet is 55 percent insect in winter and 88 percent insects in spring and early summer. By late summer and into fall the diet changes to 84 percent to 97 percent granivorous, with seeds of sedges, smartweed, panicgrass, and vervain being the most common sources. (Austin 1968)
The summer range of the Swamp Sparrow includes the eastern half of the Northern United States south to Missouri, Ohio, and Maryland, and a large portion of Canada from Newfoundland west to the Rockies.
The winter populations concentrate in the eastern United States from Texas, the Gulf Coast, and Florida north to Iowa, the southern Great Lakes, and Massachusetts.(McPeek 1994)
Biogeographic Regions: nearctic (Native )
Swamp Sparrow are commonly found in open wetlands such as cattail and sedge marshes, shrubby wetlands, and other similar habitats. They can be found occasionally in lake and streamside marshes. (MsPeek 1994)
Terrestrial Biomes: savanna or grassland
Average lifespan
Status: wild: 71 months.
The adult breeding male has a blackish forehead with a pale grey median stripe which often extends back as a narrow indistinct pale median crown-stripe. The rest of the crown is quite bright rufous, often with some fine black streaking, and with narrow black edges on the lateral crown. The Swamp Sparrow has a broad grey supercilium and slightly buffier-grey lores and ear-coverts. The eye ring is pale greyish-white. The eye stripe (from behind the eye) and narrow moustachial stripe (reaching to the base of the bill) is blackish-brown, framing the ear-coverts. The submoustachial stripe is whitish, and there is a narrow malar stripe that is blackish. The nape and neck-sides are greyish, with darker fine streaks. The mantle and scapulars are dull rufous-brown, heavily streaked black and also finely streaked with pale straw/buff. The rump and uppertail-coverts are more olive-brown, the uppertail-coverts have broad, well-defined black central streaks. The lesser coverts are chestnut. The greater and median coverts are blackish with broad chestnut feather edges. The greater coverts also have a narrow buff tip. Alula and primary coverts are blackish-brown with the alula having a narrow white edge. Flight feathers are blackish with narrow grey edges to primaries, narrow rufous edges to outer secondaries and broader rufous edges to inner secondaries. The tertials are blackish with rufous edges, becoming buffy-white round the tip. The tail is rufous-brown with pale buff feather edges. The throat is whitish. The breast is grey with a few fine dark streaks, occasionally merging to form an obscure central spot. The belly is greyish-white and the flanks and undertail-coverts are buff, with the flanks having obscure darker streaks. The iris is dark reddish-brown. The bill is dusky-grey with mid-flesh lower mandible. The legs are flesh.
The adult breeding female is very similar to the male and not always distinguishable, but tends to have less extensive rufous crown which is more heavily streaked with blackish. The differences are most noticeable in mated pairs.
The non-breeding adult is similar to the breeding adult but the head is rather duller, the crown is noticeable less rufous and more heavily streaked black, often with a narrow pale grey median stripe. The ear-coverts also tend to be buffier. The sexes are generally indistinguishable, or monomorphic.
The first year nonbreeding is similar to the non-breeding adult but noticeably less grey and rufous on head. The crown has very little or no rufous and the narrow median stripe may be buffier. The supercilium and nape are brwonish- or buffy-grey, not pure grey.
The juvenile is much buffier overall with black streaking on the crown, nape, neck-sides, breat and flanks as well as mantle and scapuolars. The streaking on the crown is usually quite heavy but can be noticeably finer than that on the upperparts. The bill is flesh at first rapidly becoming the adult's. Inside of the mouth is yellow to yellowish-white.(Byers 1995)
Other Physical Features: endothermic ; bilateral symmetry
Average mass: 14.9 g.
Average basal metabolic rate: 0.211 W.
Swamp Sparrows breeds emergent vegetation in freshwater marshes, bogs, swamps, and wet meadows. It also breeds in low swampy shores of lakes and streams and rarely in coastal brackish meadows.
The nests are about a foot above water in low brush, grass tussock, or sedge; often over the water that is about two feet deep. They have a bulky construction foundation, averaging 40 inches in outside diameter, and a smaller inside nest cup, averaging 2.4 inches in diameter and 1.5 inches in depth. The foundation is made from tightly woven coarse dead marsh grasses. The inner cup is made of fine round grasses.
The swamp Sparrow lays four or five slightly glossy, pale green to greenish-white eggs marked with reddish-brown scrawls. Two clutches are laid each year. If a clutch is destroyed by flooding or predation another clutch will be laid.
Incubation is done by the female and lasts 12-15 days.
(Austin 1968)
Key Reproductive Features: iteroparous ; gonochoric/gonochoristic/dioecious (sexes separate); sexual ; oviparous
Average time to hatching: 13 days.
Average eggs per season: 4.
A medium-sized (5-5 ¾ inches) bunting, the Swamp Sparrow is most easily identified by mottled-brown back, gray breast, white throat, and reddish-brown cap. Other field marks include dull pink legs, a squared-off tail, and a gray, conical bill. Male and female Swamp Sparrows are similar to one another in all seasons. The Swamp Sparrow breeds across a wide area of southern Canada and the northern United States. In winter, this species vacates much of the northern part of its breeding range, wintering in the southeastern U.S., along the Pacific coast from Vancouver Island to southern California, in the desert southwest, and in northern Mexico. Swamp Sparrows are present all year in portions of the Mid-Atlantic and Midwest, but birds which breed here are displaced south in winter by more northerly-breeding populations. As might be expected, Swamp Sparrows breed in a variety of freshwater wetland habitats, including swamps. This species utilizes similar kinds of wet habitats during the winter. Swamp Sparrows primarily eat insects in summer, but switch to seeds, berries, and fruits in winter when insects may be unavailable. In appropriate habitat, Swamp Sparrows may most easily be seen foraging for food along the water’s edge. There, individuals may be seen picking food off of the mud or, unusually for a songbird, will wade in the water to find prey. Males may also be observed singing this species’ trilling song from prominent perches. Swamp Sparrows are primarily active during the day.
A medium-sized (5-5 ¾ inches) bunting, the Swamp Sparrow is most easily identified by mottled-brown back, gray breast, white throat, and reddish-brown cap. Other field marks include dull pink legs, a squared-off tail, and a gray, conical bill. Male and female Swamp Sparrows are similar to one another in all seasons. The Swamp Sparrow breeds across a wide area of southern Canada and the northern United States. In winter, this species vacates much of the northern part of its breeding range, wintering in the southeastern U.S., along the Pacific coast from Vancouver Island to southern California, in the desert southwest, and in northern Mexico. Swamp Sparrows are present all year in portions of the Mid-Atlantic and Midwest, but birds which breed here are displaced south in winter by more northerly-breeding populations. As might be expected, Swamp Sparrows breed in a variety of freshwater wetland habitats, including swamps. This species utilizes similar kinds of wet habitats during the winter. Swamp Sparrows primarily eat insects in summer, but switch to seeds, berries, and fruits in winter when insects may be unavailable. In appropriate habitat, Swamp Sparrows may most easily be seen foraging for food along the water’s edge. There, individuals may be seen picking food off of the mud or, unusually for a songbird, will wade in the water to find prey. Males may also be observed singing this species’ trilling song from prominent perches. Swamp Sparrows are primarily active during the day.
The swamp sparrow (Melospiza georgiana) is a medium-sized New World sparrow related to the song sparrow.
Measurements:[2]
Adults have streaked rusty, buff and black upperparts with an unstreaked gray breast, light belly and a white throat. The wings are strikingly rusty. Most males and a few females have rust-colored caps. Their face is gray with a dark line through the eye. They have a short bill and fairly long legs. Immature birds and winter adults usually have two brown crown stripes and much of the gray is replaced with buff.
Swamp sparrows breed across the northern United States and boreal Canada. The southern edge of their breeding range coincides largely with the Line of Maximum Glaciation. A small number of morphologically distinct birds inhabit tidal marshes from northern Virginia to the Hudson River Estuary. This subspecies (M. g. nigrescens) winters in coastal marshes of the Carolinas and differs from the two inland swamp sparrow subspecies in having more black in a grayer overall plumage, larger bill, different songs, and a smaller average clutch size.
Their breeding habitat is marshes, including brackish marshes, across eastern North America and central Canada. The bulky nest is attached to marsh vegetation, often just above the ground or surface of the water with leaves or grass arching over the top. The female builds a new nest each year and lays an average of four eggs per clutch.[3] Females give a series of chips as they leave the nest, probably to ward off attacks by their mate or neighboring males.
While swamp sparrows can be found year-round in small numbers on the southern edge of their breeding range, individuals are probably all migratory, primarily migrating to the southeastern United States.
Swamp sparrows generally forage on the ground near the water's edge, in shallow water or in marsh vegetation. In winter, their diet is principally fruit and seeds, while during the breeding season their diet is mainly arthropods.[3]
The song of the swamp sparrow is a slow monotone trill, slower than that of the chipping sparrow. A male can have a repertoire of several different trills. The common call note is a loud chip reminiscent of a phoebe.
This bird's numbers have declined due to habitat loss in some parts of its range.
Swamp sparrow taken at Lake Mattamuskeet
The swamp sparrow (Melospiza georgiana) is a medium-sized New World sparrow related to the song sparrow.
