American Tree Sparrow

This one is tricky. This American tree sparrow (Spizella arborea) is easily confused with a chipping sparrow; the main difference being the rusty rather than black eye stripe. Also you can make out the faint central breast spot on this tree sparrow, which is diagnostic of this species and two white wing bars. We in Arkansas are on the southern edge of its winter range; it spends its summers in northern Canada and Alaska . Some interesting facts about this bird is that in the summer months it is strictly an insectivore (eating bugs only!) and in the winter eats seeds only, which makes sense seeing that it spends the winter in cold climates. One study suggested that these birds look for predators out of their left eye, while juncos look for predators with their right eye. Speaking of eyes, sometime look at the eye placement on birds. The prey birds have eyes on the sides of their heads (to look out for enemies), while the predatory birds have eyes in the front of their heads (called binocular vision) so they can focus on prey from greater distances. Think about the eye placement of this bird compared to an owl.