From William Webb,
Your Guide to Birding / Wild Birds.
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Sparrows

Taxonomic levels below Class Aves that are useful for distinguishing types of birds include scientific order, family, genus, and species. The 22 avian orders found in the U.S. and Canada are described in a separate article. Describing birds at the order level is most convenient for those orders with relatively few species, but describing birds at the family level is more useful for those orders with many species, including families in the Order Passeriformes – an order with 334 species in the U.S. and Canada.

Domain: Eukarya
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Aves
Order: Passeriformes
Family: Emberizidae (Sparrows)
# Genera in the U.S. & Canada: 17
# Species in the U.S. & Canada: 49
Example species: Spotted Towhee (Pipilo maculatus)
Sparrows - Family Characteristics:

The sparrows are a large group of small to medium-sized brown birds with streaks. In most species males and females appear similar in size and plumage. They have relatively short wings and short, thick conical bills used to shell seeds. Seeds comprise the majority of their winter diet, but sparrows feed heavily on insects and fruit when available. They usually forage on the ground where they scratch among the litter for food, but they also glean insects, and pick seeds and fruits from vegetation.

Sparrows frequently utilize open habitats, including tundra, prairies, desert, shrubs, old-fields, marshes, and dune-grass. Most species breed in open habitats, but some breed in woodlands. They build cup nests generally located in a low bush or on the ground. Species that breed in the north migrate, but usually do not winter south of the U.S.