Fox Sparrow
Passerella iliaca
Fox Sparrow · Green-Wood Cemetery · 16 February 2026
A Fox Sparrow in the leaf litter under the cemetery shrubs, mid-search. It breeds in the far north, in the scrub of Canada and Alaska, and passes through Brooklyn in numbers for a few weeks each way, a few staying the winter.
Heavily streaked, and noticeably larger and rustier than the sparrows wintering alongside it; the rufous tail is a good mark on its own. It feeds by a double-scratch kick, both feet at once, throwing leaf litter backward to expose whatever was hidden under it, and you often hear one before you see it.
Birds, insects, plants and other wildlife, mostly from Brooklyn, with some from further afield.
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