Dan's Feathursday Feature: Grasshopper Sparrow

A Big Message from a Tiny Bird

I can thank the Grasshopper Sparrow for getting me started in birding, and for helping me change how I hear the world.

Several years ago, as I was dipping one toe into the waters of birding, I joined a COS field trip with experienced birders. Walking through a large tract of grassland, they kept claiming they were hearing Grasshopper Sparrows. I couldn't hear anything but noisy Red-winged Blackbirds. I listened and listened, and finally, with my hands cupped around both ears, and with the wind blowing just right, I managed once to hear this sparrow's high-pitched insect-like buzz.

A light went on in my head. How much have I been missing because I don't know what to listen for!? The Grasshopper Sparrow's song was hitting my eardrums just like everyone else's, but I was tuning it out. It didn't even register in my consciousness; it was part of the background noise that I had learned over the years to ignore.

If a Grasshopper Sparrow sings in a field,
and no one is there to hear it,...   what a shame!

Thanks to the Grasshopper Sparrow, I dug into birding with a passion, and started learning to listen as much as look.

Getting back to grasshoppers.... The Grasshopper Sparrow got that name because it really does like grasshoppers, and also because its song is so insect-like. It's a small, secretive bird, and can be hard to find. But with some patience and luck, you can sometimes spot one sitting atop a dried stem in a grassy prairie. When you see it open its mouth wide and sing--and you can't hear it--know that it's time to shift gears and start listening differently. That's a big message from a tiny Sparrow, Grasshopper!

Dan's Feathursday Feature is a regular contribution to the COS blog featuring the thoughts, insights and photography of Chicago birder, Dan Lory on birds of the Chicago region.