Birds of the Upper Cumberland Region: Species Accounts

Song Sparrow (Melospiza melodia)

Song Sparrow [ventral view of adult]. Photograph Credit: Stephen J. Stedman; Hunter's Cove Rd., Putnam County, Tennessee; 26 December 2011.

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Abundance: Common at all seasons (but see also Remarks [below] regarding Regional differences in the density of the breeding population); recorded in all Regional counties (Map of UCR Distribution); data from the Regional bird-monitoring efforts indicate that the populations residing yearlong in the Region and the additional wintering population are each probably stable following a period of increase in the breeding population from the 1940s to the 1990s (this increase may still be underway) (see also Regional Bird-Monitoring Plan).

Status: Permanent Resident; formerly (pre-1940s) Winter Resident only (see also Remarks [below]); photograph (above).

Regional High Count and CBC/CBB High Count: 481 (22 December 2008; White County, Tennessee [CBC]; m. ob.); SBC/SBB HIgh Count: 304 (14 May 2005; Putnam County, Tennessee [SBC]; m. ob.); FBC/FBB High Count: 89 (4 October 2008; White County, Tennessee [FBC]; m. ob.).

Breeding: Confirmed (Recent), but see also Remarks (below).  

Habitat: x

YardWatch Results 2003 and 2004: Registered on 76 (of 125) monthly check-lists during 2003 and on 163 (of 206) during 2004, resulting in YardWatch frequency classifications of Common each year; this Yardwatch frequency classification coincides nicely with the overall Regional abundance classification of this sparrow across the Region.

Foray Results: A summary of data from UCR Forays follows (to view a map displaying foray data for a county or a sub-Region for this species, click on the name of an underlined county or state below):

* Because some foray blocks fall into two or three counties, the total of blocks in the Kentucky or Tennessee portions of the Region is less than the sum of the blocks in the counties of each portion of the Region; similarly, because some blocks fall into both states, the total of blocks for the Region is less than the sum of the blocks in the two states.

Remarks: Data from the UCR Forays and the Regional BBSs reveal a somewhat lower population density of Song Sparrows breeding at lower elevations of the Region, especially in the western and northwestern counties, as well as along the floodplain of the Cumberland River, than in the remainder of the Region.  This difference in the density of the breeding population may be related to the colonization of the Region by this species (see next four paragraphs).

    The current ubiquitous distribution and year-long presence of Song Sparrows in the Region mask the fact that this species was considered to be absent as a breeder in the UCR during the early Twentieth Century and prior to that time (Ganier 1933; Wetmore 1940). Breeding Song Sparrows colonized the Region beginning sometime after the 1930s, though uncertainty about the origin of the colonizing cohort of Song Sparrows exists.  Song Sparrows may have entered the Kentucky portion of the Region by moving southwestward from northeastern Kentucky (Mengel 1965); these birds may have continued southwestward into the western part of the Tennessee portion of the Region, as well as into areas of Tennessee west of the Region. About the same time Song Sparrows from northern East Tennessee may have moved southwestward over the Cumberland Plateau, continuing southwestward across the Highland Rim and possibly into the Central Basin.  We will probably never know exactly what proportion of the original breeding colonizers of the Region came from each of these sources, but birds from one or both of these sources undoubtedly account for most or all of the original breeding colonizers.

    Elsewhere (Stedman 1988e) I have examined the range expansion and population increase of the Song Sparrow in Tennessee from the 1950s to the 1980s including its first known breeding season appearance in the Region at Cookeville, Putnam County, Tennessee, during the late spring of 1952 (Mayfield 1953).  In that work, I did not deal directly with the issue of the site or sites of origination of the breeding Song Sparrows that colonized the Region or those that later colonized Middle and West Tennessee, and I certainly did not offer a "hypothesis"  (Nicholson 1997: 349) about that matter.  I mentioned Mengel's work on the southwestward range expansion of this species in Kentucky (and work by others dealing with the southwestward expansion in Alabama) and indicated that the increasing breeding population in East Tennessee "may" have impelled some members of that population to move westward.  No extant evidence to the contrary is now, or is ever likely to be, available, so it was somewhat disingenuous of Nicholson to contest (and misrepresent) these matters. 

    What is clear is that Song Sparrows were documented as breeding at more and more westward sites in Tennessee from the 1950s to the 1970s. Exactly where the colonizers came from can never be known. However, if one is going to argue that a particular source is more likely than another to have provided those colonizers, the least one might expect is a balanced assessment of the possibilities.  To claim that the Song Sparrows that were recorded breeding in West Tennessee were most likely from Missouri sources than from Kentucky or East Tennessee sources is perhaps plausible, but to claim that breeding Song Sparrows in Middle Tennessee were more likely to have derived from Kentucky sources moving southward than from East Tennessee sources moving southwestward ignores the great likelihood that Song Sparrows from northwestern East Tennessee (i.e., Campbell County) moved southwestward into Scott, Morgan, and from there into other counties to the west. After all, the direction of expansion that most colonizing Song Sparrows east of the 86th meridian appear to have taken for 50+ years is southwesterly or south-southwesterly, and this is the most likely direction that Song Sparrows took to colonize the Cumberland Plateau and southern Middle Tennessee.  If so, then the source of breeding Song Sparrows in that area would be from the northeast in Tennessee, not from the north in Kentucky.

    Besides attributing a nonexistent hypothesis to me, as noted above, Nicholson also makes it appear that I claimed that a "steady westward spread" (Nicholson 1997: 349; emphasis added) took place, but the discerning reader will note that all I did was narrate the known facts about the discovery of more and more westerly breeding Song Sparrows in Tennessee.  By emphasizing that the "rate" (Stedman 1988e: 383; emphasis present in original) of westerly movement in Middle Tennessee differed from the rate in West Tennessee, I was clearly arguing against the notion of steady westward colonization by this species.

Check-lists of Birds for the Counties of the UCR

Check-lists of the birds of each county of the Upper Cumberland Region may be viewed by clicking on the links below. For each county, there are two check-lists: one list that shows the species that have been observed and where possible documented in the county within the larger list for the entire Region; and one list that includes only the species observed in the county with annotations for the date and observers for at least one sighting (the ultimate goal of the latter list will be to include annotations for the very first known Regional observation of each species in that county; this goal is probably one that will take many years to complete, if completion is even a possibility). To see if the species discussed in this species account has been observed in a county, click below or click on the link for the Map of UCR Distribution near the top of the page.

Check-lists of Birds for Some Public Access Birding Sites of the UCR

Check-lists of the birds of some public access birding sites within the Upper Cumberland Region may be viewed via the links below. To see if the species dealt with in this species account has been observed within any of these sites, click on the appropriate link below. See the pages for each county within the Gazetteer for links to additional smaller public access birding sites with check-lists in progress.

Literature Cited