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Singing Fox Sparrow



I went to one of the heavy duty sparrow spots in the Mills/French Broad River 
valley of Henderson County today and, naturally, encountered a lot of 
sparrows.  Most common were Song and White-crowned followed by 
White-throated, Swamp, and Savannah.  I wasn't counting, but I'd guess there 
were in excess of fifty White-crowned and may have been quite a few more than 
that.  Lot's of them were singing, which isn't that unusual, but what was 
unusual was a singing Fox Sparrow.  There were actually about 5 or 6 Fox 
Sparrows together, but one of them was singing full throttle, first from the 
top of a low tree and then from a tall bush.  He kept it up for at least a 
half hour.  I can't say that I've ever heard them singing in the fall before. 
 Maybe it was some kind of hormonal confusion or maybe it was the nice warm 
morning after that nasty cold snap.  Anyway, they have a very pretty song.  
Kind of oriole-like.

Marilyn Westphal/Hendersonville  (southern NC mountains)
mjwestphal@unca.edu