Plate 188 – Tree Sparrow

While visiting Eastport, Maine, John James Audubon counted large numbers of the Tree sparrow as they were migrating in the spring towards the tundra regions of the far north. “Twenty or more, perched on the same tree, often delighted me with their choruses, now and then varied with the still clearer notes of one or two White-throated Finches (see Plate 8), that, like leaders of an orchestra, seemed to mark time for the woodland choristers.” Despite the observation made by Audubon and as it is for too many of the birds that Alexander Wilson (1766-1813) first named for science, the Tree Sparrow has everything to do with marshes, meadows, and other open areas and almost nothing to do with trees. That the bird is now known as the American Tree sparrow when it spends most of its time in Canada and the far north adds that much more to the misnaming for the bird.