tree sparrow

noun

1

: a Eurasian sparrow (Passer montanus) that has a black spot on the ear coverts

2

: a North American sparrow (Spizelloides arborea) that has a single dark spot on the breast and breeds in Alaska and northern Canada and winters in the U.S.

Examples of tree sparrow in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

Among the birds mostly likely to be flying over Michigan at night are Northern house wrens, Forster's terns, blue-gray gnatcatchers, pectoral sandpipers, American tree sparrows and Caspian terns. — Jalen Williams, Freep.com, 21 Apr. 2026

Species include the fox sparrow, the American tree sparrow and the dark-eyed junco. — Elizabeth Weise, USA TODAY, 11 Mar. 2025

Late American tree sparrows in the Concord area of the Great Meadows National Wildlife Refuge and at Mount Auburn Cemetery in Cambridge, where a yellow warbler and a wood thrush were also tallied. — Isabela Rocha, BostonGlobe.com, 29 Apr. 2023

And bees aren’t the only ones—bird species like tree sparrows, which nest on the ground and breed during the summer, are also at risk. — Erin Blakemore, Smithsonian, 15 June 2017

Word History

First Known Use

circa 1770, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Rhymes for tree sparrow

• bolero
• bracero
• estero
• herero
• montero
• nonzero
• potrero
• primero
• prospero
• romero
• sombrero
• vaquero