Seaside Sparrow (Ammodramus Maritimus) Finch Family
Called also: MEADOW CHIPPY; SEASIDE FINCH

Length -- 6 inches. A shade smaller than the English sparrow. Male and Female -- Upper parts dusky grayish or olivaceous brown, inclining to gray on shoulders and on edges of some feathers. Wings and tail darkest. Throat yellowish white, shading to gray on breast, which is indistinctly mottled and streaked. A yellow spot before the eye and on bend of the wing, the bird's characteristic marks. Blunt tail. Range -- Atlantic seaboard, from Georgia northward. Usually Winters south of Virginia. Migrations -- April. November. A few remain in sheltered marshes all winter.

The savanna, the swamp, the sharp-tailed, and the song sparrows may all sometimes be found in the haunts of the seaside sparrow, but you may be certain of finding the latter nowhere else than in the salt marshes within sight or sound of the sea. It is a dingy little bird, with the least definite coloring of all the sparrows that have maritime inclinations, with no rufous tint in its feathers, and less distinct streakings on the breast than any of them. It has no black markings on the back.