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Fox Sparrow

Passerella iliaca
Passerellidae
Large reddish sparrow with blotchy streaks
Prefers thick vegetation close to ground
Pushes both feet backwards to uncover food in litter
Conical beak probes for invertebrates in soil
Fox-colored plumage is one of four possibilities
Reddish brown is replaced by sooty brown in second plumage
A third form is slate-colored above
Fourth is also slate-colored but with a much thicker bill
Of course, there's always the leucistic form
Thick-billed female needs insect protein to produce eggs
Insects also needed in growth of fledglings
Feeds on seeds and fruits after breeding

From 2002 through 2022, the Fox Sparrow was recorded twice at Salter Grove, in April 2018 and in October 2021.  Its reddish-brown plumage blends into the dense thickets that it favors and effectively hides it from observers.  Occasionally, it might draw attention as it hops along forest edge brush or when it sends leaf litter flying as it scratches noisily for food items on the ground with both feet at once.

The Fox Sparrow is redder, larger and chunkier than the Song Sparrow, a year-round resident of the park.  It also has a yellowish bill as distinct from the grayish bill of the Song Sparrow.  Both sparrows appear to have streaked breasts.  However, the Fox Sparrow has strings of chevron-shaped spots that sometimes coalesce into blotches whereas the Song Sparrow has long blurry streaks.

There is disagreement among researchers as to whether the Fox Sparrow may actually be four separate species because there are four different plumages occupying distinct ranges.  The reddish fox-colored form breeds across Alaska and northern Canada, and winters mostly in the southeast of the United States.  This is the form that passes through Salter Grove in migration.

The other three morphs include a sooty-brown form that breeds along the northern portion of the west coast and winters from Alaska to California.  There is a slate-colored form that lives in the interior of western North America that winters south and west, and finally, there is the thick-billed form that is restricted to California and Oregon.  The thick-billed form has a similar plumage to the slate-colored form.

Regardless of differences in plumage color, all Fox Sparrows breed in dense undergrowth, whether in coniferous or mixed forests across the far north of North America, further south in the chaparral of the Pacific coast, or in the western mountains.

Despite the conical bill that looks made for cracking seeds and nuts, Fox Sparrows feed mostly on insects and other small invertebrates during the breeding season.  However, seeds and berries do become a more important part of the diet once breeding activities are over.  Coastal Fox Sparrows have been observed to eat small crustaceans.