New World Sparrows

Fox Sparrow

Fuchsammer

Passerella iliaca

New World Sparrows4 photosFirst seen: 6 August 2026

The Fox Sparrow is a large, heavily marked sparrow with a rounded body and a strong bill. Pacific birds belong mainly to the dark Sooty group and differ from the redder eastern forms. It feeds by making forceful backward scratches through leaf litter with both feet. Seeds, insects and berries are all included in the diet. The species breeds in dense northern and mountain vegetation and winters in thickets and woodland edges.

ID tip: A large, heavy sparrow; the Pacific 'Sooty' form is dark chocolate-brown above with a heavily spotted breast, the spots merging into a central blotch. Larger, darker and plainer-faced than the Song Sparrow, and lacking its head stripes.

First seen: 6 August 2026 · Mount Rainier · 4 photos in the collection.

Places in my records

Locations where this species is supported by a dated first record, an unambiguous single-place outing or a reviewed assignment.

Girdwood24 August 2026 Mount Rainier6 August 2026

Family: New World Sparrows (Passerellidae)
Length: 15–19 cm
Wingspan: 27 cm
Regional status: Summer visitor (Pacific Northwest, USA)
Conservation: Least Concern LCIUCN Red List · retrieved 27 August 2026
Habitat: Dense scrub, forest edge and mountain thickets
Diet: Seeds, berries and insects, scratched up from the ground

Built from verified occurrence records, not drawn by hand. Core range = the countries holding 99% of all records; the rest are scattered or vagrant records. Record counts track where people watch birds as much as where the birds are, so the map shows presence, not abundance. Data: GBIF (CC BY 4.0). Basemap: Natural Earth.

Fox Sparrow

Places in my records

Selected photographs