I love this friendly little bird, and it has a cool Latin name—Spizella passerina. It has a black eye line with a white eyebrow. When breeding, it sports a bright rufous cap.
It likes to be around the White Oak Pavilion and the adjacent meadow. The Peterson Field Guide to North American Bird Nests says the chipping sparrow has a “Broad range of habitats with shrubby undergrowth that is often adjacent to grassy openings, including open coniferous, deciduous, and mixed forests, woodland edges, and clearings, along edges of montane meadows, riparian shorelines, in parks, orchards, farms, suburbs.” The arboretum is the perfect place for it to breed and raise a family.
I listened to it singing from the oak trees around the pavilion for about half an hour. The building seemed to be amplifying the sound, as I initially could hear it from the parking lot. Its song is a trill of evenly spaced dry chips.
It finally revealed itself and flew down to the ground to forage on some grass seeds. If you are quiet and still, this bird is accepting of your presence and you can get to watch it fairly up-close.
Be careful when identifying this bird by its song. The dark-eyed junco is in the area too and has a very similar trill. Good luck!
