Beak of the Week – Nelson’s Sparrow

Defying the notion that all sparrows are little brown birds, Nelson’s Sparrows are some of our most stunning winter sparrows on the Texas coast. They sport boldly patterned faces of golden orange paired with a blue-grey crown and cheeks. On their bodies, a mosaic of olive, gold, and grey makes them jewels of the marshes they inhabit. In spite of their beauty, their song is surprisingly unassuming, being little more than a single hissy buzz that could be difficult to distinguish from an insect. Some compare the sound of their song to a hot iron being dunked in a bucket of water.

There are two distinct groups of Nelson’s Sparrows, the Atlantic and the Interior Nelson’s Sparrows. The Atlantic Nelson’s Sparrows breed in the tidal salt marshes of Northeast Massachusetts up to Nova Scotia and winter on the southeastern Atlantic coasts from Virginia to Eastern Florida. The Interior Nelson’s Sparrows spend their summer in the northern Great Plains from Alberta to North Dakota, where they breed in a variety of freshwater marshes. They then join us here on the Gulf Coast to spend the winter in our salt marshes.

Though the majority of their diet consists of insects in the summer, Nelson’s Sparrows primarily feed on seeds in the winter. You can often spy them moving through tall salt marsh grasses, plucking seeds from their husks or flitting across the water nearby. During low tide, they may be seen running between muddy cordgrass stems, plucking any seeds that have fallen to the ground. Keep an eye and ear out for these colorful sparrows. They may not sing in the winter and can be quite secretive, but at dawn you may hear a chorus of seeps and chips around Bolivar Flats and Horseshoe Marsh Bird Sanctuary!