I needed to do some homework before I could answer a question posed to me by Frances Rosenbalm of Bristol, Tennessee. As she communicated to me in an email, she had discovered a bird’s nest in her ...

Had I lived 100 years ago and taken an interest in birds in the 1800s, I might have been told that the chipping sparrow (Spizella passerina) was “a hair-bird” because it lines the nest with horsehair, ...

This week’s featured creature is, as far as I know, a permanent resident in the Ada area. It is fairly easy to identify, if just by the size alone. They are among the smallest sparrows and are about ...

A chipping sparrow has built a nest in one of the Ponderosa pine trees I planted when we moved to our place west of Gilby, N.D. The work was probably done by the female. The female also tends the nest ...

We moved back to Maine a little over two years ago and one of the most fun things about the move for me has been starting a journal chronicling changes in nature as the year progresses. So now I am ...

Chipping sparrows sail in to perch regularly on the uppermost twig of one in a clump of native eastern red cedars, always a little caterpillar or bug dangling from their beaks. Then they drop down ...

Bird-watchers call them “chippies,” little brown birds known as chipping sparrows that flock to backyards, woodlands and fields. The birds actually breed in deep East Texas and from the Edwards ...

Q: Earlier in the summer I saw a very small bird feeding a much larger one. Is this something that happens — do some kinds of birds help out other species? A: This does happen in the bird world, but ...

Four of our sparrow species are noted for having a red cap, as the reddish crown-patch on top of their heads is called, at least in breeding season plumage. These red-caps aren’t bright red, like a ...

House sparrows drive me crazy. They crowd around bird feeders, suet cakes and bark butter while forcing birds like chickadees to wait in line to get nourishment. When I place mealworms in feeding ...