Recent research shows that juvenile American sparrows tend to learn most of their songs from territorial neighbors. Given the difficulty of following free-living, dispersing juvenile songbirds, relatively little is known about when, where, how, and from whom these young birds learn their songs. There are dozens of species of sparrows in North America alone, and for many birders, they can be challenging to identify. To explore these issues, we studied the Chipping Sparrow (Spizella passerina), males of which have a single, simple song, but populations of which may contain 20–30 different songs. At times it is rather skulking in behavior, hiding in the thickets, seen only when it flies from bush to bush with a typical pumping motion of its tail. Such song sharing between neighbors eases communication, which is essential for breeding success and territorial possession. Usually, however, sheer numbers make it conspicuous. Very widespread in North America, this melodious sparrow is among the most familiar birds in some areas, such as the Northeast and Midwest. song sparrows possess a sophisticated communication system where the same signals have different meanings depending on the specific way in which they are used (Beecher 2008), there is good reason to believe that song sparrows must learn now only how to produce their vocalizations but also how to use these songs for effective communication. All sparrows are small birds with active personalities, and their elusive behavior can make it difficult to watch them long enough for a positive identification.Each sparrow does, however, have distinctive field marks that can make it easier to tell them apart. Vocal Learning and the “Song System” Oscine songbirds (e.g., zebra finches, canaries, and white-crowned sparrows) learn their song by imitating those of older members of their own species [1,2].This is done by modifying vocal output until the auditory feedback it generates matches a memorized model [].In some birds vocal learning gives rise to easily discernible song dialects, which … Because song sparrows possess a sophisticated communication system where the same signals have different meanings depending on the specific way in which they are used (Beecher 2008), there is good reason to believe that song sparrows must learn now only how to produce their vocalizations but also how to use these songs for effective communication.