This dainty Chipping Sparrow recently returned to Iowa. Usually I see them on or near the ground, looking for seeds, which are the mainstay of their diet.
This one was poking around in mosses that blanketed the roof of a picnic shelter at Lacey Keosauqua State Park. They don’t eat moss. Was the bird looking for small critters? Cornell Lab of Ornithology says they eat invertebrates when they’re breeding.
This is one of our native North American sparrows, smaller than most species of sparrows. And one of the prettiest.