Western Bird Guide: Birds of the Rockies and West to the Pacific

by Charles K. Reed

WESTERN CHIPPING SPARROW.

560a. Spizella passerina arizonæ. 5 inches.

This is one of the most helpful birds to our gardens, living upon insects injurious to vegetation and on the seeds from the garden weeds. They will nest in trees and shrubs, or vines about the house, making a small compact nest, mostly of rootlets and horsehair. They lay from three to five greenish blue eggs, with few spots of brown, mostly about the larger end (.70 × .52).