Song Sparrow, marsh edge
Melospiza melodia
Song Sparrow · Constitution Marsh · 17 October 2026
A Song Sparrow on a dead stump in the tangle at the edge of Constitution Marsh. Song Sparrows live in damp scrub and thicket across the continent, and in the Northeast plenty stay all winter, singing on mild days even in January.
Much of what is known about how songbirds live was first worked out on this species. Margaret Morse Nice, an amateur, colour-ringed the Song Sparrows on the floodplain behind her house in Columbus, Ohio, through the 1930s and followed each bird for years, and her study is still a standard reference.
Birds, insects, plants and other wildlife, mostly from Brooklyn, with some from further afield.
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