Birds

The Chipping Sparrow's habit of linning its nest with hair has earned it the name "hairbird." The bird formerly utilized horsehair, but with the decline in the use of horses they take any hair available and will even pluck strands from the coat of a sleeping dog. Originally inhabitants of natural clearings and brushy forest borders, they are now found in gardens and suburban areas and have become familiar songbirds. During most of the year they feed on the ground, but in the breeding season males always sing from an elevated perch. Their food consists mainly of seeds, though in summer the adults and the young feed on insects.

Chipping Sparrow

Description	5-5 1/2". A small sparrow. Upperparts brown, streaked with black; underparts, sides of face, and rump gray; crown chestnut; eyebrow white, with thin black line through eye. Young birds have streaked crown, buff eyebrow, and duller underparts.
Voice	Thin musical trill, all on one note like a sewing machine.
Habitat	Grassy woodland edges, gardens, city parks, brushy pastures, and lawns.
Nesting	3-5 pale blue eggs, lightly spotted with brown, in a solid cup of grass and stems, almost always lined with a hair; nest is placed in shrubbery or in a tangle of vines.
Other	The Chipping Sparrow's habit of linning its nest with hair has earned it the name "hairbird." The bird formerly utilized horsehair, but with the decline in the use of horses they take any hair available and will even pluck strands from the coat of a sleeping dog. Originally inhabitants of natural clearings and brushy forest borders, they are now found in gardens and suburban areas and have become familiar songbirds. During most of the year they feed on the ground, but in the breeding season males always sing from an elevated perch. Their food consists mainly of seeds, though in summer the adults and the young feed on insects.
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