grasshopper sparrow | Best Life Birding- Birdwatching Tours

If you ever find yourself standing in an open grassy field in central North Carolina, listen closely for weird insect noises that don’t sound quite right and you might get the opportunity to find the source of the strange call, a Grasshopper Sparrow!
These chunky little birds have the oddest song ever. It kinda sounds like a metallic cricket chirp played back with an off pitch autotune vibe lol!

I spotted this lovely little guy last week singing his heart out on a fence post overlooking a field while birding along Mid Pines Rd. in Raleigh, NC. He seemed to have quite a few fans as more Grasshopper Sparrows would flutter up to sit nearby as he belted out his tune.

As their name rightly implies, Grasshopper Sparrows eat grasshoppers in summer, though they will take other prey including beetles, caterpillars, bugs, and spiders.
They eat mostly seeds in winter, which they glean exclusively from the ground.

Although there are a few that stick around during the winter months, Grasshopper Sparrows are spring and summertime residents of the Tarheel State.
They are best found in overgrown pastures and in fields of dense grass.
These little gems will stick around NC until early-mid October so you’ve still got plenty of time to find one this year.

Photos by @sally_siko of @bestlife_birding on my beloved full frame 50MP beast, the mighty @canonusa #5Ds

My favorite bird from the trip to Yates Mill Park & Mid Pines Rd yesterday wasn’t a brightly plumaged warbler, rather it was this sweet Grasshopper Sparrow with a colorful personality!

I was thrilled to see this sweet little guy puffing out his feathers and singing his heart out on a fence post. He’d hop around and crouch low every so often then stand up straight to belt out his buzzycall of “tic tic tic pzzzzzzzzz”.
No doubt, he was doing his level best to attract a lady lol!

Grasshopper Sparrows prefer dry, open grassy habitats to hunt for a meal. As you may have guessed, their favorite food are indeed grasshoppers but they’ll eat any insect that they can catch as well as seeds.
These round sparrows aren’t the strongest flyers (something I noticed on this windy day as this bird struggled to fly at a distance greater than a few feet) so usually they tend to hunt for a meal on the ground. This makes them kinda tough to find (especially in favorite habitat of tall, thick grass) so the best way to locate one is to listen for their call.
I actually got pretty lucky here to catch a photo of one up on a fence post out in the open!

Though they do spend the wintertime in North Carolina, Grasshopper Sparrows are found in greater numbers during the spring and summer. Look for them in thick grassy fields, under power lines and recently clear cut areas through mid October here in the Tarheel state.

Photos by @sally_siko of @birdwatching_nc on the full frame beast of an SLR, the mighty @canonusa
#5Ds