Youngsters
get to know the young hero and the adventures
that carry him toward manhood. As they come to know Jeremiah as a friend who would
understand their own growing pains, they look forward to each book in the
series.
Teachers
will Achieve..
Teachers will appreciate the ways
that Jeremiah Stokely novels, kits, and activities make literature
meaningful to children. Teachers can download free classroom idea
packets to hold a hand-on workshop based on each book.
Click the >Play button
to listen to the bird's song!
Song Sparrow (Melospiza
melodia)
Length 5-6 in., wingspan 8¼ in., Family Emberizidae
The Song Sparrow is one bird that actually sings what
we think of as a melody. It sings a rhythmic series of trills and clear
notes. It also has several short calls, including an alarm, a flight call,
and a chase call.
This long-tailed bird is mostly brown and gray, white
below, much streaked with brown on back and sides. Its cheeks are striped
gray and brown, its beak gray, and its throat marked with wide, up-and-down
brown stripes. It has an uneven, central breast-spot.
Song Sparrows are found in every state (including the
southern coast of Alaska), most of Canada, and northern Mexico, but their
colors vary slightly. They reside in various habitats: the edges of woods,
gardens, marshes, and overgrown fields. Females lay three to five pale blue
eggs spotted with reddish-brown in a cup-shaped nest among low trees or
shrubs, usually less than four feet off the ground. The young hatch in two
weeks – blind, naked, and totally dependent on their parents. In just 16
days, they are feathered and flying! If food is plentiful, a pair may raise
two or three broods a year.
Insects form most of the Song Sparrow’s diet. It likes
beetles, caterpillars, grasshoppers, ants, as well as spiders and grass
seeds. It hunts for food by scratching with its long toes to turn over
leaves.
Tip: The Song Sparrow and Fox Sparrow are often
confused. Both are large brown, streaked birds with long tails,
breast-spots, lovely songs, and a habit of scratching for food. The Fox is
redder and has, in the East, a yellow bill. Perhaps the best clue is the
time of year. The Song Sparrow is present year-round in most of the U.S.
except the southeast and Texas, which see it only in winter. The Fox Sparrow
spends summers in northern Canada and Alaska, winters in southeastern states
except Florida and the Georgia coast. It is seen in the rest of the U.S. and
Canada only by chance during fall and spring migrations.
