All birds New World Sparrows
Savannah Sparrow
Passerculus sandwichensis
Here October to May.
Recorded by Valerie Heemstra. CC BY-NC-SA 4.0, via xeno-canto, trimmed and volume evened out.
Look for
- Lots of dark streaks on the chest.
- A thin white stripe down the middle of the head.
- Many have a yellow spot in front of the eye. Males and females look alike.
A little about it
Savannah Sparrows spend the winter here. They come in October and stay until May, and April has the most. They migrate mostly at night, and some go as far north as the tundra for the summer.
It walks and runs on the ground to find food. Sometimes it flies up to snatch a bug out of the air. When it isn't nesting, it often feeds in small, loose flocks.
In summer it eats lots of bugs, like beetles and grasshoppers. It also eats spiders, seeds from grass and weeds, and some berries.
At nesting time, a male shows off with a slow, fluttering flight over the grass. He holds his tail up and lets his feet hang down.
Fun fact
The nest is a cup of grass on the ground, tucked under dead, flattened plants. Often the only way in is a little tunnel on 1 side.
When it's here
- January: here
- February: here
- March: here
- April: here
- May: here
- June: not here
- July: not here
- August: not here
- September: a few
- October: here
- November: here
- December: here
Taller bars mean more sightings. Most often seen in April.
How big
5 to 6 inches. About as big as a sparrow, with a shorter tail than a Song Sparrow.
Where to look
Open fields and pastures, plus weedy empty lots in winter. It often sits up on a tall weed or a fence wire, out where you can see it.
People have spotted it at Lake Stanley Draper, Lake Thunderbird State Park, Lake Hefner.
Could it be something else?
Song Sparrow
It has a longer tail, and its streaks often run together into a dark spot in the middle of the chest. A Savannah Sparrow usually stays out in open fields.
Lincoln's Sparrow
It has thin black streaks on a tan chest and a gray stripe over the eye. It hides low in thick bushes, while a Savannah Sparrow often sits out in the open.
Where these facts come from
- Audubon Guide to North American Birds
- When it's here: Sightings shared on iNaturalist in the 8 counties, all years.