Medium-sized sparrow with a round head, short bill, and long tail. Key field marks include the central breast spot, white eyering, and black-and-white mustache stripes.
Gray head contrasts with the streaky brown back. Key field marks include the central breast spot, white eyering, and black-and-white mustache stripes.
Medium-sized sparrow with a round head and long tail. Juveniles are more uniformly brown, lack the gray head, and are streaky beneath.
Often sings from high perches in scrubby sagebrush and chaparral areas.
Bell’s Sparrows are small songbirds—medium-sized for sparrows—with relatively long tails. The head is rounded and the bill is fairly short and thick.
About the size of a Chipping Sparrow; slightly smaller than a Golden-crowned Sparrow.
sparrow-sized or smallerBell’s Sparrow consists of four subspecies with somewhat distinct plumages. Two are noticeably dark gray on the head with nearly entirely dark tails and unstreaked backs: these are A. b. belli, which occurs mainly in coastal California sage; and A. b. clementeae, a federally threatened subspecies that occurs only on San Clemente Island. There are also two lighter forms: A. b. canescens, of the Mojave desert region, which closely resembles Sagebrush Sparrow; and A. b. cinerea, of Baja California, which has buffier face markings than the other three subspecies.
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