On Sparrows and the War in Ukraine

Photo: Mathew Schwartz / Unsplash

The song sparrows are back. They fall into the category that birders call “little brown jobs”: small birds that are mostly brown and seemingly indistinguishable from one another, especially moving fast through leaves or grasses. In fact, the song sparrow has a very distinguishable dark spot in the center of its chest; it is one of the easiest sparrows to identify. And as you might expect from its name, its song lifts the heart…