New World Sparrows

Roughly 130 species, confined to the Americas and unrelated to the House Sparrow of Eurasia, which belongs to a different family entirely. Most are brown, streaked and ground-dwelling, with conical seed-cracking bills, and identification usually turns on the face pattern. Song is elaborate and learned, which has made this family, the White-crowned and Song Sparrows above all, central to research on how birds acquire song.