Fox Sparrows Galore

Taiga Fox Sparrow
Credit: Andrew Aldrich

I recently posted on the Maine Birding listserv a simple request for a Fox Sparrow photo I needed for a project and was amazed by the results. I received photos from 9 people from a variety of places around Maine. Rather than letting these offers go unused I thought I would post below all of the great photos I received (including the one above). Each photographer is credited below the image.

The Fox Sparrow is a large, bulky sparrow that, over its North American range shows great variability with as many as 18 different subspecies recognized by some authorities. The most widespread form occurs almost exclusively in the Boreal Forest region of North America. This form is sometimes called the “taiga” form and shows the brightest reddish plumage of any of the subspecies. The bulk of these birds winter in the southeastern U.S. with small numbers wintering north into the northern U.S. The diversity of Fox Sparrow subspecies reaches its pinnacle in the western U.S. with at least 10 of the 18 subspecies documented from British Columbia. These western forms are generally darker than the “taiga” form some looking sooty or slate gray. Here's a photo for comparison:

Sooty Fox Sparrow
Credit: Flickity.net

One form called the “thick-billed” form occurs in mountainous areas from Oregon south through California and just into Baja Mexico and, as its name suggests, it has a massive bill. Here is that subspecies:

Thick-billed Fox Sparrow
Credit: Flickity.net

I was just out in the San Francisco Bay area for a visit and saw the so-called “sooty” form which breeds along the coast of Alaska and British Columbia south to northwest Washington State and winters along the Pacific coast to California. A fourth recognizable form is called the “slate-colored” Fox Sparrow and it breeds in the Rocky Mountain region from British Columbia south to Nevada.

In the eastern U.S. and southeastern Canada, Fox Sparrows are migrating through and in many regions they don’t stay long and don’t occur in very large numbers so people really enjoy having an opportunity to see them and marvel at the beautiful reds and grays in their plumage. We’ve reported here before about some of the parts of the Boreal Forest where Fox Sparrows nest that have received protection. One very large area of the “taiga” Fox Sparrow’s breeding range that is still in question is the Peel River Watershed in the Yukon. The Yukon government set up a Peel Watershed Planning Commission which worked over many years and with many public meetings to develop a series of recommendations for this incredible 16 million acre region. In November 2011 the Commission released its final recommendations which called for protection of over 13 million acres of the watershed from mining and other industrial development. You can bet that there are an awful lot of Fox Sparrows whose nesting areas would be safe there! Unfortunately the Yukon government has signaled its intention to protect only a small fraction of the region and keep large areas open for mining despite the Commission’s recommendations.

Enjoy the photos and if you want to learn more about the Peel River visit www.protectpeel.ca

Thanks to all the photographers who so graciously let us post their photos!

Taiga Fox Sparrow
Credit: Gale McCullough