Like most birds, Song Sparrows depend on the increasing day length as their major signal to initiate breeding behavior, but studies have shown that warmer temperatures and an abundant food supply can trigger breeding to start many weeks earlier than normal.A pair of Song Sparrows will live and nest in 1-1/2 acres or less and may raise up to four broods a year.The female Song Sparrow does most of the nest construction alone, while the male devotes himself to defending his territory, mostly through song.The nest of the song sparrow is usually found under grassy tufts on the ground or low in a bush or shrubbery.Song Sparrows sing throughout the year and hearing them at dawn on a cold January or February morning is not uncommon.During the dawn twilight on a spring morning, male Song Sparrows will sing a song every eight seconds and may average over 2,300 songs during an entire day.Studies have shown that female Song Sparrows are attracted to males that learn and sing a larger repertoire of songs and that these males are much more successful in holding their territories and reproducing.Some Song Sparrow songs may be very short, consisting of only four notes and lasting less than two seconds, while others may consist of twenty or more notes, lasting over five seconds.Adult male Song Sparrows perform about six to twenty different melodies each one is a slight variation on the basic Song-Sparrow song.The oldest known banded Song Sparrow to be recaptured in the wild was over 11 years old.Of these, 16,675 have been recovered, a recovery rate of 2.2%.
Over 750,000 Song Sparrows have been banded since 1955.When migrating, female Song Sparrows travel farther south than do their male counterparts.This is due to their ground feeding habits and their almost total dependence on weed seeds for food in the winter. In the northern part of their range, Song Sparrows are partially or completely migratory depending on snow cover and winter temperatures.Song Sparrows on the Aleutian Islands of Alaska are one-third longer and weigh twice as much as the ones in the eastern U.S.Some are lightly marked and pale while others are dark and heavily streaked. The Song Sparrow in different parts of the country can look amazingly different.There are 31 recognized subspecies of the Song Sparrow, more than any other bird species found in North America.They are the most common and widespread sparrow native to North America. Song Sparrows are found in every state of the Union and Canadian province.
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