Natural
History
Notes
on the Birds
Songbirds II
Sparrows through Finches
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Name
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Food
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Seeds and insects
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Feeding
Techniques
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Uses its toes to stir up ground debris
to find food.
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Habitat
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Open habitat in a multitude of
places.
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Plumage
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Male
and female have the same plumage
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Distribution
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Throughout the US
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Breeding
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Nests on ground
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About the Notes
from A.C. Bent
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Under #1 below, when Bent refers to
"euphonia", "samuelis", and "fallax", he is referring to
particular races of the Song Sparrow. This is a particularly
good introduction to the discussions of what constitutes the
definition of a species.
Nominate race - The original race that
was identified as the species.
Plasticity - In this case plasticity
refers to the Song Sparrow's ability to become different
subspecies. Most species have not demonstrated this ability.
Ira N. Gabrielson - (1889 - 1977)
Former Director of the Fish and Wildlife Service.
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Notes from A.C.
Bent
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Not only is the song
sparrow one of our best-known birds; it is also our most
variable, with 31 subspecies recognized as occurring within
the territory covered by the A.O.U. Check-List (1957) and 3
additional subspecies in Mexico (Friedmann, et al., 1957).
Robert
Ridgway (1901) writes, "No
other bird of the Nearctic Region has proven so sensitive to
influences of physical environment," and Alden H. Miller
(1956) cites the song sparrow as "one of the best examples
of substantial racial diversification" among terrestrial
vertebrates on this continent. Most of the subspecies
occur west of the Rocky Mountains and in Alaska. Thus 9
races are found exclusively in California, to which may be
added in California 8 other races that are not confined to
that state. As a result of this plasticity, the song sparrow
figures prominently in literature dealing with the origin of
species and with ecologic gradients. The frontispiece in
Joseph
Grinnell and A. H. Miller's
(1944) work on California birds will repay examination for
its portrayal of variations in eight of the races of that
state. Ira N. Gabrielson and F. C. Lincoln (1951) put the
extent of the intra-specific variation in the following
way:
"It is probably true that if all the
resident Song Sparrows between Kodiak Island and the
Imperial Valley in California were suddenly destroyed, there
are few observers who would believe that there was any close
relationship between the large dusky Aleutian birds and the
small pale form about the Salton Sea."
It will assist the reader if he is
aware of the following decisions as to the manner of
presenting this life history of the song sparrow:
(1) Most subspecies are treated
separately in order to permit the use of the detailed
information that is available for some populations and to
maintain the integrity of three contributed accounts,
Margaret
M. Nice's summary of her
seminal study of euphonia, Richard F. Johnston's
report of his investigation of samuelis, and Robert
W. Dickerman's account of fallex.
(2) When two or more
geographically proximate and ecologically similar subspecies
are believed not to differ in the essentials of their life
histories, they are sometimes grouped and information about
them is pooled or is otherwise generalized, as
indicated.
(3) When published studies have
treated some aspect of the species as a whole rather than of
subspecies, e.g., its food habits or its molestation by the
cowbird,
these results are presented under the first subspecific
history, i.e., of the nominate race M. m. melodia,
which also includes data that cannot be referred to
subspecies and material that appears to be of general
applicability.
Thus, the life history of M. m.
melodia is to a degree broadly descriptive of the
species. Mrs. Nice's treatment of euphonia, on the
other hand, contains a wealth of detail about a small
population of a widely distributed migratory race. Dr.
Johnston's life history of samuelis treats in similar
detail a rather specialized, sedentary race with a very
limited range. For a general view of the song sparrow and
its "wonderful adaptability" (Taverner, 1934), therefore,
the reader might wish to consult the life histories of the
races just mentioned, as well as the accounts of the races
grouped as "Alaskan song sparrows" and "Pacific insular song
sparrows." Finally, M. m. rivularis might be referred
to as an example of the several subspecies inhabiting the
deserts of the United States and Mexico.
Young: Most of our knowledge of the
development of the behavior of nestling song sparrows comes
from Mrs. Nice's work, devoted chiefly to euphonia. The
following paragraph is based on her report (1943). The
development of the plumage is described below under the
heading Plumage.
Newly hatched song sparrows can grasp,
gape, swallow, defecate, and change location "by means of
uncoordinated wrigglings." A feeding note has been heard in
2-day-old birds. The eyes begin to open at age 3 or 4 days.
Incipient preening motions appear at age 5 days, as do,
rarely, cowering and the ability to utter a location call.
At age 7 days many motor coordinations are acquired, and
henceforth the bird "is capable of leaving the nest." Among
the behaviorisms of the 7-day-old are cowering, stretching
of the wings, head-scratching, yawning, and climbing to the
nest rim. Birds 8 and 9 days old acquire new types of
wing-stretching, engage in wingfluttering and -fanning, and
body-shaking, and utter new feeding notes.
Both parents feed the nestlings,
chiefly on "insects, worms, beetles, grubs, flies,
caterpillars, grasshoppers, and similar insects" (Knight,
1908). The period in the nest varies, its minimal limit
being given as 7 days by Forbush (1929) and its maximum as
14 days by most writers. Seven days undoubtedly does not
represent a natural, undisturbed nestling period, but is
probably the youngest age at which nestlings will leave the
nest when disturbed. Knight says that young leave ground
nests earlier than they do elevated nests, and that this
early age is 10 days. At this time they are still unable to
fly, and newly fledged birds remain hidden in plant cover.
Mrs. Nice (1937) states that young euplwnia "when * * *
about 17 days old * * * are able to fly and come out of
hiding."
Dependence on the parents continues
until after the post-juvenal molt (Todd, 1940). The parental
bond may be assumed to be severed at the age of about 28 to
30 days as in euphowia (Nice, 1937).
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Name
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Food
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Seeds and insects
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Feeding
Techniques
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Feeds in flocks
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Habitat
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Open country - suburbia
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Plumage
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Male
and female have the same plumage
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Distribution
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Throughout much of the US, except the
northeast, Atlantic coast
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Breeding
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On the ground, or low tree
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About the Notes
from A.C. Bent
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Bird tick - a dipterous insect
parasitic upon birds (genus Ornithomyia, and allies),
usually winged.
attrition - basically
"death"
acciptrine hawks - refers to
accipiters which are small hawks such as the
Sharp-shinned
Hawk, and the Cooper's
Hawk , who specialize in
hunting small birds.
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Notes from A.C.
Bent
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Mortality: It seems
to me better to get away from the connotations of the word
"enemy" and simply to point out that the white-crown is
subject to the usual factors that cause attrition in animal
populations, whether disease, the complex of factors
engendering winter mortality, or direct predation by
accipitrine hawks, shrikes,
weasels, and the like.
It has its normal share of parasites,
both external and internal. Oscar M. Root has kindly
furnished a note on the identification of Hippoboscid
louse-flies, Ornithomyia fringillina, found on immature
birds by Gary C. Kuyava in Minnesota; Francis Harper (1958)
has taken a mite of the genus Lealaps from a juvenile
specimen in Quebec; and Robert A. Norris (1954) found biting
lice (Mallophaga)
on dried skins and also found that four out of nine
specimens examined in Georgia had protozoan infections of
the blood (Leucocytozoon),
and one of these, a smallish individual which had not begun
its prenuptial molt on March 17, was doubly infected with
the malarial parasite, Plasmodium.
One adult was heavily infected with abdominal
helminths,
the filarid
nematode Diplotriaena. The
individual infected with Plasmodium also had foot tumors
caused by the virus Epithelioma contagiosm. Alfred O. Gross
(1937) reports the mallophagan
Philopterus subflavescens (Geof.) from young on the Labrador
coast, and Herbert Friedmann (1938) reports parasitism by
the cowbird
at Okotoks, Alberta.
Of greater population significance,
probably, is the loss of young birds during the first
migration. For the Quebec-Labrador segment, especially, this
must be a significant decimating factor because the young of
the year are often wind-drifted out to sea, where they
perish unless they are fortunate enough to reach an island
from whence they can return. I have been particularly
impressed with this problem in their lives at Block Island,
R.I., where hundreds of white-crowns appear in autumn, when
cold fronts pass out to sea, all of them
immatures.
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Name
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Food
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Seeds and insects
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Feeding
Techniques
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Scratches ground with its large toes
to uncover food
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Habitat
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Wooded areas, undergrowth
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Plumage
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Male
and female have the same plumage
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Distribution
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Southeastern states, Pacific
states
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Breeding
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Nests on the ground or low hanging
tree
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About the Notes
from A.C. Bent
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Sylvester D. Judd, a zoologist with
several years of field and laboratory experience, was
appointed in 1895, and assisted Professor Beal in the study
of economic ornithology for several years. He prepared a
series of fine papers on the food taken by birds, one of the
most notable of which was "Birds of a Maryland Farm" (1902);
others dealt with the food of grouse, quail, and turkeys.
Dr. Judd died in 1905.
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Notes from A.C.
Bent
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Food: Fox sparrows are essentially
terrestrial feeders and scratch lustily for their food
amongst fallen leaves. Using both feet in unison, they
display such remarkable balance that Charles W. Townsend
(1905) wonders "why they do not pitch forward on their heads
when they spring back." Amelia S. Allen (1915) comments on
species at her feeding tray in California: "The habit of
scratching for its food seems to be so firmly fixed that it
usually scratches among the crumbs before picking them
up."
When not on the breeding grounds the
fox sparrow is essentially a vegetarian. According to
Sylvester D. Judd (1901) the stomachs from 127 birds taken
principally in the eastern U.S. in every month except June,
July, and August contained 86 percent vegetable and 14
percent animal matter. Judd adds "The vegetable food differs
from that of most other sparrows in that it contains less
grass seed (only 1 percent), less grain, and more fruit,
ragweed, and Polygonum.
Half the food consists of ragweed and
Polygonum."
The birds do little if any damage to cultivated fruits, for
most of the fruit seeds found, of blueberries, elderberries,
blackberries, grapes, came from birds collected in March,
April, and May, and were obviously from withered fruits of
the previous year the birds picked up from the
ground.
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Name
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Food
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Seeds and
insects
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Feeding
Techniques
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Feeds in flocks
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Habitat
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Open country - suburbia
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Plumage
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Male
and female have the same plumage
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Distribution
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Pacific states
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Breeding
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Nest is generally placed on the
ground; lined with grass
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About the Notes
from A.C. Bent
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Zonotrichias - Bent is referring to
the genus name of the species, Zonotrichia. This genus
includes four species in the US, White-crowned
Sparrow, Golden-crowned
Sparrow, White-throated
Sparrow, and the Harris
Sparrow.
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Notes from A.C.
Bent
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Behavior: On the wintering grounds the
golden-crowned sparrows are usually found in mixed flocks
with white-crowned sparrows. Often while watching
white-crowns feeding on a lawn, one will notice a few
golden-crowns coming out of adjacent shrubbery, usually
staying close to the shrubbery and disappearing into it
quickly when one approaches. John B. Price (1931) notes
"Although easier to trap than the white-crowns, the
golden-crowns are harder to observe in the field as they
keep more in the bushes."
D. D. McLean writes me: "When feeding,
this species is relatively quarrelsome toward others of the
same species and genus. * * *
When loafing, they are more tolerant
of their own kind and other species. Mixed flocks of
Zonotrichias spend much of their time perched in or
near the tops of bushes whisper-singing, preening, and
carrying on twittering small talk. When such flocks are
disturbed, they rarely fly en masse to new cover, but string
along in singles and small groups. One thing I have
particularly noted of interest to me is the fact that they
rarely climb very high in trees during the winter, and about
25 feet would be near the maximum. However, in the spring
during or just prior to the general move, they often go up
to 60 or 70 feet. It has also been noted that most flights
from these heights have been northward unless startled or
forced in some other direction."
When they are excited, and sometimes
when they are about to take flight or move to another perch,
birds raise the feathers of the crown.
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Name
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Food
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Seeds and insects
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Feeding
Techniques
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Open country, mixed woodland,
thickets
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Habitat
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The undergrowth of
woodlands
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Plumage
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Male
and female have the same plumage
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Distribution
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Eastern states to southern
Arizona
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Breeding
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Usually nests on ground
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About the Notes
from A.C. Bent
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Notes from A.C.
Bent
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Food: White-throated sparrows feed on
both plant and animal matter. Sylvester Judd (1901) examined
the contents of 217 stomachs collected during every month
except June. From these he reported: The food for the year,
as a whole * * * consists of 19 percent animal matter and 81
percent vegetable matter. Of the vegetable food, 3 percent
is grain, 50 percent weed seed, and the remainder chiefly
wild fruit * *
Some grass seed is consumed,
particularly seeds of such troublesome species as
pigeon-grass, crab-grass and other panicurns, and Johnson
grass. This element forms about 5 percent of the total food
and is taken chiefly during September, when it amounts to 24
percent of the food of the month. A little amaranth and
lamb's quarters are eaten; and gromwell, chickweed, wood
sorrel, sedge, violet and sheep sorrel are all represented
in the diet. But the principal weed seeds found in the
stomachs are those of ragweed and different polygonums. * *
* The two weeds form 25 percent of the food for the year, of
which ragweed furnishes 9 percent, and the polygonum
16 percent. During October,
ragweed alone constitutes 45 percent of the month's food. *
*
The insect food resembles that of many
other species in general character, but some interesting
differences appear when it is reviewed in detail.
Hymenoptera
constitute 6 percent of the year's food; Coleoptera, 5
percent; Heteroptera and Diptera,
taken together, 3 percent; and Lepidoptera, 3 percent, the
customary quota of spiders, millipedes, and snails supply
the remaining 2 percent of the animal food.
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Name
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Food
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Seeds and insects
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Feeding
Techniques
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Forages on the ground
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Habitat
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Open country, agricultural areas,
parks
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Plumage
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Male
and female have the same plumage
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Distribution
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Throughout the US
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Breeding
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Variety of nesting sites
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About the Notes
from A.C. Bent
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Notes from A.C.
Bent
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The specific name Alexander
Wilson gave this little
sparrow, socialis, aptly describes the close
relationship many later authors have noted between its
habitations and those of man. None has expressed it better
than Forbush
(1929), who wrote "The Chipping Sparrow is the little
brown-capped pensioner of the doorward and lawn, that comes
about farmhouse doors to clean crumbs shaken from the
tablecloth by thrifty housewives. It is the most domestic of
all the sparrows. It approaches the dwellings of man with
quiet confidence and frequently builds its nest and rears
its young in the clustering vines of porch or veranda under
the noses of the human tenants."
The early writers spoke of it as the
most common bird in their areas. Audubon
(1841) wrote "Few birds are more common throughout the
UnitedStates than this gentle and harmless little bunting."
But soon after the turn of the century a sharp decline in
numbers was noted in formerly populous areas (R. F. Miller,
1933; ii. F. Price, 1935; L. Griscom, 1949). The
explanations given usually include cowbird predation or
competition from English
sparrows. Yet in 1954 - 58 the
chipping sparrow was the most abundant nesting bird on the
campus of the Lake Itasca Forestry and Biological Station in
Hubbard County, Minn., in an area where there were many
cowbirds and no English sparrows.
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Name
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Food
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Seeds and insects
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Feeding
Techniques
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Foraging along the ground
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Habitat
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Desert
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Plumage
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Male
and female have the same plumage
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Distribution
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Southwestern United States
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Breeding
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Nest placed in low shrub or
cactus
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About the Notes
from A.C. Bent
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Notes from A.C.
Bent
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Food: Joe T. Marshall, Jr., writes me
that he obtained seeds and "rocks" from the stomach of a
specimen taken in Arizona in the fall. Seeds and gravel were
similarly found in a bird taken in New Mexico in November. A
specimen taken in Janaury in northern Sonora had been eating
small seeds.
Marshall considers that the species
probably eats seeds in the winter and insects during the
nesting period. I have often seen adults carrying insect
matter toward their nests. Free water is apparently not
necessary for these birds when insects are
available.
Smyth and Bartholomew (1966) comment:
"The black-throated sparrow's use of drinking water in the
field seems to depend on its diet. During the late spring
and early fall, stomachs contain almost exclusively seeds
and gravel and the birds regularly drink at waterholes even
when maximum temperatures are as low as 90 C. But as soon as
green grass and herbs appear after the first rains - in 1964
these fell in mid-November - the sparrows are no longer seen
at water holes and can be found in small, widely scattered
flocks far from the water holes. At this time their stomachs
contain green material as well as seeds and gravel, their
bills are stained green, and they can be seen often pecking
at green vegetation. Then when day-flying insects become
more abundant in February these are eaten, sometimes almost
exclusively, and this diet allows the sparrows to be
independent of drinking water throughout the breeding
season. A few adults can be seen coming to drink in June,
and the numbers of birds visiting water and the number of
visits to water per bird then increase until by August each
bird visits, on the average, about twice daily. The young
are fed insects, particularly grasshopper abdomens.
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Name
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Food
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Seeds and insects
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Feeding
Techniques
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Forages on the ground
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Habitat
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Open field, marsh, wetland
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Plumage
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Male
and female have the same plumage
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Distribution
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Throughout most of the US
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Breeding
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Breeds on the ground
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About the Notes
from A.C. Bent
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Notes from A.C.
Bent
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Behavior: The most frequently
occurring description of Savannah sparrow behavior is that
"it runs like a mouse through the grass." This is certainly
an apt phrase since it has connotations of color, behavior,
and habitat and, in addition, neatly summarizes the
Savannah's mien.
Quay (1957), in his paper on wintering
Savannaha, summarizes his observations as
follows:
The Savannah sparrow was not an easy
bird to watch. When disturbed, it ran on the ground more
often than it flushed. Crouched low to the ground, head down
and stretched forward, it ran quickly and quietly, taking
advantage of all cover and resembling a mouse more than a
bird.
When disturbed by a man walking,
Savannahs either moved onward on the ground or took flight.
Flights were usually short, 20 -70 feet, and practically
never carried the bird out of the plot. Flight was quick,
erratic and only a few inches above the
vegetation.
Although the Savannah sparrow runs
when disturbed, it hops when it feeds, and sometimes
scratches like a towhee. Quay (1958) reports that the
Savannahs "typically fed on the ground, picking up seeds
from the ground like a chicken. The only times they were
seen to take seeds directly from plants were when snow and
sleet covered the bare ground." However, as the seeds
continue to scatter from the plants, the Savannahs soon
resume feeding on the surface of the snow.
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Back Home
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Name
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Food
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Primarily
insects and other
invertebrates; also seeds
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Feeding
Techniques
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Forages on the ground
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Habitat
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Wetlands, marsh
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Plumage
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Male
and female have the same plumage
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Distribution
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Unusual distribution - California
coast, southeast coast, Great Plains
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Breeding
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Nest placed above high-tide mark on
ground
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About the Notes
from A.C. Bent
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Notes from A.C.
Bent
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Enemies: Friedmann (1929, 1963) lists
nelsoni among the hypothetical victims of the
brown-headed
cowbird on the basis of one
hearsay report. The first definite record was made by John
Lane, who reported in a letter to Oscar M. Root: "On June
20, 1962 I found a Nelson's sharp-tail nest with 4 eggs plus
1 cowbird egg in a grassy hummock where the yellow rail
nests in Dixon's Slough, Gorrie School District, Brandon,
Manitoba."
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Back Home
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Name
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Food
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Seeds and insects
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Feeding
Techniques
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Forages on the ground
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Habitat
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Open country, fields
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Plumage
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Male
and female have the same plumage
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Distribution
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Western and midwest states
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Breeding
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Nest is on the ground, or low
shrub
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About the Notes
from A.C. Bent
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Notes from A.C.
Bent
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Behavior: Where it is plentiful, as on
its Oklahoma breeding grounds, the lark sparrow is markedly
gregarious. Even at the height of the nesting season one
sees them feeding together in small flocks. In such flocks
at Lake Texoma I frequently identified color-banded
individuals from active nests. While pairs defend their nest
and its immediate environs, they do not establish or defend
a feeding territory. Birds may fly some distance from the
nest for both nesting material and food.
The flocks increase in size as summer
wanes and become rather noisy, with much chirping and
occasional outbursts of song. Individuals in the flocks
quarrel with one another fairly frequently; the fights do
not seem to be governed by sex or age, for males may combat
with other males and with females, and adults with
juveniles. Other species sometimes join the flocks. In one
flock of 40 lark and 10 field sparrows, interspecific
fighting occurred occasionally. In late summer the flocks
become very wary and difficult to approach, and will leave
the field where they are feeding at the first sight of an
intruder.
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Name
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Food
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Seeds and
insects
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Feeding
Techniques
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Forages on the ground
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Habitat
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Open country
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Plumage
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Male
and female have the same plumage
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Distribution
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Southwest from Texas to Pacific
states
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Breeding
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Nests on the ground; may compete with
Song Sparrow for nesting sites.
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About the Notes
from A.C. Bent
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Notes from A.C.
Bent
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The Lincoln's Finch (Sparrow) was very
shy at first and at all times exceedingly alert and
suspicious but he showed a nice and, on the whole, wise
discrimination in his judgment of different sights and
sounds. A keen, intelligent little traveller, evidently,
quite alive to the fact that dangers threatened at all
times, but too cool-headed and experienced to be subject to
the needless and foolish panics which seize upon many of the
smaller birds. He soon learned to disregard the movements
and noises which we made within the cabin, and the trains
thundering by on the other side of the river did not disturb
him in the least but if our door was suddenly thrown open or
if a footstep was heard approaching along the river path, he
at once retreated into the thickets behind the ferns,
dodging from hush to bush and keeping behind anything that
would serve as a screen until all was quiet again, when he
would presently reappear at the edge of the covert and,
after a short reconnaisance, begin feeding again.
But however busily engaged at the
seed, no sight or sound escaped him. If a Chipmunk rustled
the dry leaves on the neighboring hillside, he would stand
erect and crane his neck, turning his head slowly from side
to side to watch and listen. When a Swift,
of which there were many flying about, passed close overhead
with a sound of rushing wings, the Sparrow would crouch
close to the ground and remain motionless for a minute or
more. But when nothing occurred to excite his suspicions, he
would feed busily and unconcernedly for minutes at a time.
Some of the seed had sifted down among the dry leaves and
for this he scratched precisely in the manner of the
Fox
Sparrow, making first a
forward hop of about two inches and then a vigorously
backward jump and kick which scattered behind him all the
leaves that his feet had clutched. In this manner he would
quickly clear a considerable space and then devote himself
to the uncovered seeds, which he would pick up one by one
and roll in his bill after the manner of most
Sparrows.
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Name
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Food
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Seeds and insects
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Feeding
Techniques
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Forages on ground
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Habitat
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Sagebrush, desert, plains
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Plumage
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Male
and female have the same plumage
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Distribution
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Interior western states
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Breeding
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Nests in shrubs near the ground, but
not on the ground
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About the Notes
from A.C. Bent
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Notes from A.C.
Bent
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John
Cassin discovered this
drabbest of North American sparrows in 1850 and named it in
honor of the Boston physician and naturalist
Thomas
Mayo Brewer. His recognition
of the range as essentially western North America remains
unchanged, especially with the discovery in 1925 in the
Canadian Rocky Mountains of a montane race. No other bird is
more characteristic of the arid sage country of the Great
Basin and Pacific slopes, where Brewer's sparrow is often
abundant both as a migrant and resident.
|
|
Name
|
|
|
Food
|
Mostly insects
|
|
Feeding
Techniques
|
Forages on the ground.
|
|
Habitat
|
Grassland
|
|
Plumage
|
|
|
Distribution
|
Primarily through the eastern states -
but also found in scattered areas of the west.
|
|
Breeding
|
|
|
About the Notes
from A.C. Bent
|
|
|
Notes from A.C.
Bent
|
Behavior: The grasshopper sparrow is a
secretive bird, difficult to observe. It seldom flies, but
runs ahead of the searcher through the grass and flushes
only when hard pressed. As William Brewster (journal)
describes it: "when flushed the sparrows rise swiftly and
vigorously, twisting a little * * * the flight then becomes
steady and direct and is performed in long, regular
undulations, the wings being vibrated rapidly." He adds: "On
the ground they both run and hop." Witmer Stone (1937) notes
that in flight the bird "turns to one side or the other like
a snipe." Simmons (1925) writes that when flushed the
western grasshopper sparrow rises "in a zig-zag flight for a
few yards" and then "dives back into the weeds. * * * In
open fields, flight is extended and rapid."
The bird perches in a peculiar
crouched position, as if ready to dart off in an
instant.
D. J. Nicholson comments on the
colonial nature of floridanas: "They breed in small
colonies: three or four to a dozen pairs. These colonies are
very local and are not found everywhere over this vast
prairie, many apparently suitable spots being
unoccupied."
These same words might well apply to
the eastern and western grasshopper sparrows as well, for
they show the same colonial nature and fluctuate
considerably in abundance from year to year.
One cause of population changes might
be attributed to grassland management practices. On my study
area, for example, the fields during the early part of the
study were run down and supported a poor growth of timothy,
alfalfa, and red clover. From 1944 on, the fertility of the
fields increased considerably and the grass mixture was
changed to a thick, vigorous growth of alfalfa, ladino
clover, and brome grass (Bromus inermis). The grasshopper
sparrows in the area settled in hay and abandoned fields
where the vegetation was not so heavy.
Oscar Root (1957, 1958, letter), who
kept a long-time record of local population fluctuations on
a level, artificially drained airport of 100 acres at North
Andover, Mass., found the grasshopper sparrow populations
there built up to highs, followed by severe reductions in
numbers the following year. He believed mowing the grass on
the area prior to his counts reduced the population.
However, when mowing was postponed to allow completion of
nesting by the sparrows, the population still remained low.
He states that certain areas always productive in the past
were without grasshopper sparrows, though in prime shape and
undisturbed.
The birds about Concord, Mass., have
shown a similarly fluctuating pattern of abundance through
the years (Griscom, 1949).
An unusual concentration of
grasshopper sparrows is described by Brewster in his
Nantucket journal. Here on June 27, 1874, he and Maynard
found grasshopper sparrows extremely plentiful. He writes
that "they were equally distributed for an extent of three
to four miles. Often there were three or four pairs breeding
in an area a hundred yards square." This species was fairly
common on the Islands in the 1920's, but in recent years it
has become local and uncommon and appears to have been
replaced by the Savannah
sparrow (Passerculus
sandwichensis) (Griscom and Folger, 1948). Mrs. A. B.
Davenport writes that the same situation is true on
Conanicut Island, off Rhode Island. The bird was formerly
abundant on Martha's Vineyard and north to Essex County,
Mass.; today it is rare and local, replaced by the Savannah
sparrow (Griscom and Snyder, 1955).
Thus it appears that populations of
grasshopper sparrows fluctuate sharply at times in spite of
the availability of suitable habitat. No reason can be
given, but in some areas it appears to be giving way to the
Savannah sparrow, a bird that occupies the same fields and
is able to maintain its numbers when shrubs invade the
area.
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Name
|
|
|
Food
|
Seeds and insects
|
|
Feeding
Techniques
|
Forages on the ground
|
|
Habitat
|
Marshes, brushy areas
|
|
Plumage
|
Male
and female have the same plumage
|
|
Distribution
|
Most of the US, except southeast,
southwest, and Pacific states
|
|
Breeding
|
Nest is placed on the ground
|
|
About the Notes
from A.C. Bent
|
"The Department of Agriculture
estimates that the sparrow tribe, of which the tree sparrow
is one of the most abundant species, saves the farmer $90
million a year." One of the main reasons for having the Life
Histories of North American Birds written was to provide
commentary on the economic impact of birds.
|
|
Notes from A.C.
Bent
|
Economic importance: Because of the
vast quantities of obnoxious weed seeds the tree sparrows
consume during their winter sojourn in the States, much has
been made of the economic value of this species. The
Department of Agriculture estimates that the sparrow tribe,
of which the tree sparrow is one of the most abundant
species, saves the farmer $90 million a year. Judd (1901)
describes the thoroughness with which they clean up a patch
before moving on. On an area 18 inches square in a weedy
ditch where they had been feeding, he found 1,130 half
seeds, only 2 whole ones, and only 6 seeds left in the whole
field, which, he says, was devoid of weeds the next
year.
Since Judd's time some doubt has been
expressed of the value of the sparrow tribe. Certainly Judd
overestimated the thoroughness of their gleanings, else they
could not return year after year to the same areas, nor
would they wander so freely over their little territories,
only to cover the same ground another day. And certainly
there is no scarcity of weeds in the country regardless of
the great hordes of these birds. The reproductive capacities
of the plants easily outdo the eating capacities of the
sparrows, and there will probably always be enough weeds
left to bother the farmer and propagate the species. Indeed,
if there were no sparrows, the overcrowding of the plants
themselves would soon establish a balance.
But if not actually beneficial, these
birds are certainly harmless. They occasionally sample
grain, but to no appreciable extent. The charge has been
made that they distribute rather than destroy the seeds, but
this accusation was refuted by Judd's study. He found that
in the thousands of stomachs containing ragweed,
there was never an unbroken seed. The thoroughness of avian
digestion prevents the evacuation of anything but a most
insignificant portion of the food ingested.
In the summer the tree sparrow is of
no economic significance, as it nests beyond the reaches of
civilization. But whether or not we can evaluate the species
in cold dollars and cents, it will always be welcome as a
gentle, cheerful little creature in our winter fields and
gardens.
|
|
Name
|
|
|
Food
|
Seeds, insects
|
|
Feeding
Techniques
|
Forages on the ground
|
|
Habitat
|
Brushy hillsides
|
|
Plumage
|
Male
and female have the same plumage
|
|
Distribution
|
Southwest
|
|
Breeding
|
|
|
About the Notes
from A.C. Bent
|
A. L. Heermann is the person for whom
the Heermann's
Gull was named.
|
|
Notes from A.C.
Bent
|
Contributed by HOWARD L.
COGSWELL
HABITS
John Cassin (1852) described the bird
now known as the rufous-crowned sparrow from specimens A. L.
Heermann collected on the Calaveras River, California,
presumably in foothills east of Stockton and thus in the
northern part of the range of the nominate race as it is now
designated. Four years later, and presumably from the same
specimens, J. Cassin (1856) illustrated the species nicely
in color. However he still gave it the most inappropriate
vernacular name of "western swamp sparrow," stating that the
birds "live in the vicinity of the shores of the ocean and
the margins of streams of fresh water." How he obtained such
a completely erroneous idea of the habitat of this
predominantly dry hill country bird is not clear. Apparently
all he had to base it on were A. L. Heermann's skimpy notes,
which he quotes as follows: "In the fall of 1851, I met with
a single specimen of this bird, in company with a flock of
sparrows of various kinds. In the spring of 1852, I found it
quite abundant on the Calaveras River, where I procured
several specimens. Its flight appeared feeble, and when
raised from the ground, from which it would not start until
almost trodden upon, it would fly a short distance, and
immediately drop again into the grass."
Its shy nature and inconspicuous song,
coupled with the discomfort attending any pursuit or wait
for such a bird in its typical habitat of dry hillside grass
with scattered or open brush or rocks, are doubtless partly
responsible for the scant attention given this species since
the 1850s. In the San Francisco Bay region Joseph Grinnell
and Margaret W. Wythe (1927) refer to it as being "closely
restricted to open sunny hillsides clothed sparsely with
chaparral particularly California sage." In that region this
plant (Artemisia californica) is widespread on steep,
south- or west-facing slopes with poor or little soil
(Grinnell, 1914b). William Brewster (1879) states, based
upon information from C. A. Allen of Mann County,
that:
"They * * * are found in considerable
numbers every season on all the mountains about Nicasio.
Black Mountain, however, seems to be their stronghold. It is
destitute of forests and the exceedingly steep, rocky sides
are abundantly clothed with 'wild oats' and a bush very like
the sweet-scented southern-wood. Another shrub, called by
hunters the 'spit-bush' is also characteristic of the
locality, which is otherwise dry, and barren to a degree.
The males sing from the tops of these low
bushes."
While we might wish for a more
detailed description of this area where the nests of the
species were first found and described, it is obviously
typical rufous-crowned sparrow habitat. Joseph
Grinnell and A. H. Miller
(1944) summarize most succinctly the habitats the race
rujficeps prefers as follows: "Hillsides that are grass
covered and grown to sparse low bushes, scarcely dense
enough to constitute true chaparral. Rarely bushes may be
absent if rock outcrops are present. Slopes frequented are
sunny and well drained. Marked preference is shown for
California sage (Artemisia californica). This in its
typical open growth, associated with grass tussocks, is
adhered to exclusively by these sparrows in many
areas."
The mixture of low shrubs and grass
they emphasize as this sparrow's prime habitat often
includes other plants that they probably use. On the outer
coastal mountains Hubert 0. Jenkins (1906) found the species
at Big Sur and at Mount Mars, Monterey County, where I have
seen them in April and December of recent years on the steep
slope just above a high sea cliff where golden yarrow
(Eriophyllum staechadifolium), mock-heather
(Haplopappus ericoides), low-growing coyote brush
(Baceharie pilularis), poison oak (Rhus
diversiloba), and many broad-leaved herbs grow amid the
sagebrush and grass. However, where the shrubs are too dense
in this coastal area rufouscrowned sparrows are
absent.
In the inner coast ranges and
presumably the western foothills of the Sierra Nevada, black
sage (Salvia mellijera) and other low shrubs mix with
or replace the Artemisia, and the grass and other herbs
between the shrubs are often much sparser in this area,
which is occuppied by rufous-crowns, than near the coast. J.
Grinnell and T. I. Storer (1924) emphasize that scattered
low bushes on the driest slopes form this race's habitat at
El Portal and Pleasant Valley near the eastern limit of its
range in the Sierra Nevada foothills. In both the coastal
and inner foothill areas the open spacing of these types of
short shrubs, as well as their soft, often woolly leaves and
relatively thin, flexuous twigs characterize the vegetation
types known as coastal scrub or coastal sage scrub, as
distinct from the taller, stiffer, harsher-leaved
chaparral.
The rufous-crowned sparrow is, in
fact, one of the most characteristic birds of the coastal
scrub and undoubtedly reaches its highest population levels
in that type of vegetation, whether on the foggy coast
itself or in the sunny interior foothills. This race is also
reported occasionally where true chaparral is regrowing
after fires and is consequently still low and sparse. J.
Grinnell (1905d) found them daily from Aug. 29 to Sept.
4,1904 in a ravine near the base of Black Mountain, Santa
Clara County, "only on a southern hillside covered with a
low growth of greasewood brush (Adenostoma)." In the
Poso Range of Kern County H. Sheldon (1909a) found the
species "quite plentiful * * * inhabiting the wild
gooseberry thickets in the canyons and in such patches
growing among rock piles on the hills." Scattered trees,
usually oaks, may also be present in some areas where
rufouscrowned sparrows breed, but as J. R. Pemberton (1910)
notes in the bills of southern Alameda County, "The birds
seldom leave the bushes for the oaks, their favorite perches
being the tops of the sage."
Harry S. Swarth (1917) notes this race
in shrubless foothill areas east of Fresno: "As many as ten
or twelve might be observed in the course of hail an hour.
The hills they frequented are devoid of brush or trees of
any sort, and the sparrows resorted for shelter to the
numerous rock piles and outcroppings. Here, in company with
a large Rock
Wren population, they seemed
to find congenial surroundings despite the lack of
vegetation of a size to afford shelter."
|
|
Name
|
|
|
Food
|
Seeds and insects
|
|
Feeding
Techniques
|
Forages on the ground
|
|
Habitat
|
Brushy habitat
|
|
Plumage
|
Male
and female have the same plumage
|
|
Distribution
|
Eastern US
|
|
Breeding
|
|
|
About the Notes
from A.C. Bent
|
|
|
Notes from A.C.
Bent
|
Food: In his classic work, Judd (1901)
notes that the field sparrow eats about 41 percent animal
and 59 percent vegetable matter. The animal food consists of
weevils, beetles (May, click, leaf, ground, and tiger),
grasshoppers, caterpillars, leafhoppers, ants, flies, wasps,
and spiders. The vegetable matter is made up of grass seeds
(crab, pigeon, broomsedge), chickweed, purslane, lamb's
quarters, gromwell, knot-weed, wood-sorrel, with some oats
after harvesting time.
Martin, Zim, and Nelson (1951) state
of the field sparrow's animal food: "Insects eaten consist
chiefly of beetles, grasshoppers, and caterpillars. Various
other invertebrates, including ants and other Hymenoptera,
leafhoppers, true bugs, and spiders are also consumed."
Plant food from 137 specimens from the northeast consisted
mainly of bristlegrass, crabgrass, broomsedge, panicgrass,
some oats, and lesser amounts of dropseed grass, sheep
sorrel, pigweed, ragweed, wood sorrel, timothy, and
goosefoot. From 38 stomachs from the prairie states, the
main plants eaten were bristlegrass, panicgrass,
dropseedgrass, and crabgrass, with lesser amounts of
vervain, goosefoot, wheat, redtop, and gromwell.
Crooks (MS.) noted that the field
sparrows began feeding before it was completely light in the
morning; they fed a great deal up to about 9 a.m.,
intermittently for brief periods during the day, and then
heavily again from 6 to 6:30 in the evening. He also noted
that the female fed for longer periods, up to 14 minutes at
a time, while the male's feeding periods averaged around 4
minutes.
My observations confirm those of
Malcolm Crooks. Pairs often fed for many hours during the
early morning before they nested, and seemed to be picking
up grass and other seeds. During nesting they continued to
feed on seeds, but began eating many more insects, including
grasshoppers and large larvae, and the incubating female
devoured any ants that ventured into the nest. The
nestlings, as stated above, are fed entirely on insect food.
Later in the summer as the flocks began to form they again
fed largely on grass seeds.
|
|
Name
|
|
|
Food
|
Seeds and insects
|
|
Feeding
Techniques
|
Scratches the ground to find
food
|
|
Habitat
|
Varied habitats that include suburbia,
chaparral, brushy areas
|
|
Plumage
|
Male
and female have the same plumage
|
|
Distribution
|
California
|
|
Breeding
|
Nest placed in shrub or low
tree
|
|
About the Notes
from A.C. Bent
|
senicula - this refers to a different
race of the California Towhee
|
|
Notes from A.C.
Bent
|
Behavior: A behavior pattern often
mentioned in the literature is the brown towhee's so-called
"shadow-boxing," a fighting response aroused when its
reflection in a shiny surface suggests the presence of
another towhee in its territory. D. P. Dickey (1916) first
described this action for senicula as follows: "Perching on
the sill, the bird would eye his reflection, and then set
systematically to work to kill the supposed rival, with all
the ire and intolerance of a rutting moose." Reflections
from window panes near feeding stations frequently stimulate
these attacks, and hub caps often receive the same attention
in the Berkeley area from both towhees and robins. W. E.
Ritter and S. Benson (1934) describe and discuss the meaning
of this phenomenon in terms of breeding activity and
territorial behavior:
The Towhee, standing on the ledge,
would face the window and assume a threatening attitude by
lowering its head, fluffing out its feathers, and drooping
its wings. It would then leap up at the window, striking it
with its feet, or with the feet and the beak at the height
of about ten inches. It would then fall back and immediately
leap up to strike again. Sometimes it varied the procedure
by continuing up the pane, clawing at its image as it
rose.
|
|
Name
|
|
|
Food
|
Seeds and insects
|
|
Feeding
Techniques
|
Scratches the ground to find
food
|
|
Habitat
|
Brushy mountain slopes, chaparral,
sage, manzanita
|
|
Plumage
|
Male
and female have the same plumage
|
|
Distribution
|
Southwest
|
|
Breeding
|
Nest placed in shrub or low
tree
|
|
About the Notes
from A.C. Bent
|
|
|
Notes from A.C.
Bent
|
Food: Among the relatively little
information published on the species' food habits,
J.
Grinnell (1908) noted
greentails in abundance at the north base of Sugarloaf in
the San Bernardino mountains where "they were feeding on
service-berries [Amelanchier alnifolial] in company
with many other birds."
According to F.
M. Bailey (1928), the species
takes weed seeds and insects, including the alfalfa weevil
and other injurious beetles and bugs. In the Bull Run
mountains of Nevada, Ira La Rivers (1941) found this towhee,
among other species, feeding on small, third-instar
Mormon
crickets (Anabrus
simplex).
The green-tailed towhee often visits
feeding stations, where it accepts chick-feed, cracked corn,
bread crumbs, and birdseed. C.
H. Merriam (1890) noted that
this bird's "habit of searching for food on the ground led
to the death of several individuals which got into our traps
set for Mice and other small mammals." Similar experiences
were recorded by L. M. Huey (1936a) and also by J. Grinnell
and T. I. Storer (1924), who specified that the source of
the birds' undoing was the rolled oats placed on the traps
as bait.
|
|
Name
|
|
|
Food
|
Seeds and insects
|
|
Feeding
Techniques
|
Scratches the ground to find
food
|
|
Habitat
|
Diverse habitats, thickets, edge
habitats
|
|
Plumage
|
Male
and female have similar plumage
|
|
Distribution
|
Eastern states
|
|
Breeding
|
|
|
About the Notes
from A.C. Bent
|
|
|
Notes from A.C.
Bent
|
Mark Catesby (1731) in his description
of the "towhee-bird," commented "It is a solitary Bird; and
one seldom sees them but in Pairs. They breed and abide all
the Year in Carolina in the shadiest Woods." Vieillot, in
redescribing Catesby's "towhee-bird" as "Le Touit Noir" in
1819, added the following to the already growing store of
information (translated from the French):
This species is numerous in the center
of the United States where it remains through the summer and
from where it migrates in Autumn to spend Winter in the
South of the States. The Towhees, because of their short
wings, cannot fly at much altitude or stay in the air for a
long time; so they travel only by fluttering from hedge to
hedge, from bush to bush, and they are never seen at the top
of tall trees. They hunt on the ground for the different
seeds they feed on, pushing the leaves and weeds that hide
those seeds aside with their bill and feet; they seemed to
me to be quite fond of small acorns [petits glands],
eating usually only those that are fallen; they live in
pairs through summer, gathering in families during September
and large flocks toward the end of October, which is the
time of their migration voyage which they accomplish in
company with sparrows and blue and red fallow-finches. Those
birds like to stay in summer in the thickness of thickets
and at the edge of woods. Then we can see the male on the
top of a medium height tree where he sings for hours at a
time; his song is made of only a single short and often
repeated musical phrase, but it seemed to me sonorous and
pleasant enough to make me regret that the bird would stop
as soon as there were young ones. The female makes her nest
on the ground, in the weeds or under a thick bush, gives it
a thick and specious shape; she makes it out of leaves,
vines, and bark strips outside and lines it inside with fine
weed stems. Her laying consists of five eggs of a pale flesh
color with freckles more abundant at the larger
end.
Since these early writings, many
details of the life history of this ever popular bird have
come to light. Presumably, both Catesby and Vieillot were
referring to the bird that breeds in the northeastern United
States although Catesby was more likely to have been
familiar with the form occurring in Georgia and the
Carolinas. Studies of geographic variation in morphology,
migratory behavior, and breeding habits have today
documented the propriety of recognizing four subspecies of
eastern towhees (Dickinson, 1952). C. G. Sibley's (1950)
study of the allied western forms has confirmed their close
relationship to the nominate eastern stock.
The four eastern races the 1957 A.O.U.
Check-List recognizes are characterized as follows
(Dickinson, 1952):
P. e. erythrophthalmus (Linnaeus). A
large, small-billed, vividly colored, red-eyed form, showing
a large amount of white on the rectrices. It breeds in the
Transition and Upper Austral Zones east of the Great Plains
from southern Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Ontario, and Maine
southward through middle North Dakota, Iowa, Kansas, and
northern Arkansas, and eastward through middle Tennessee,
northern Georgia, and western South Carolina to the Atlantic
coast in southern Virginia.
P. e. rileyi Koelz. A medium sized,
large-billed race with variable eye color, and showing less
white on the rectrices than its northern relatives. It
breeds from western Florida and southeastern Alabama
northeastward through southeastern Georgia and South
Carolina to central coastal North Carolina.
P. e. alleni Coues. A small,
medium-billed, pale-eyed race, showing very little white in
the rectrices. It breeds in Florida from Franklin, Columbia,
and Duval counties south to southern Dade County.
P. e. canaster Howell. A large,
large-billed, pale race, with variable eye color, showing a
medium amount of white on the rectrices. It breeds from
eastern Louisiana and western Mississippi northward to
southern Tennessee, eastward across northern Alabama and
central Georgia and South Carolina to south-central North
Carolina, and southward to the Gulf coast from extreme
western Florida westward to central Louisiana.
Authors vary widely in their choice of
terms describing the preferred habitat of the rufous-sided
towhee. Some areas noted are hedgerows, thickets, brushy
hillsides, and "slashings" (E. 11. Eaton, 1914); woodlands
and swamps (E. E. Murphy, 1937); dry uplands near edges of
woods or high tracts covered with a low brushwood (Baird,
Brewer, and Ridgway, 1874b); brushy pastures (C. J. Maynard,
1896); and "thickets of willows, cottonwoods, and young
sycamores, where wild sunflowers, horse-weeds and poke grow
rampant, the whole woven together by the interlacing of wild
cucumber vines" (A. W. Butler, 1898). Forbush (1929) says
"He is a ground bird: an inhabitant of bushy land. No other
sparrow in New England seems to be so wedded to life in
thicket and tangle. * * * He spends most of his life in
thicket, 'scrub' or sprout land, and so the bushy lands of
Marthas Vineyard and Cape Cod are favorite resorts. He is
not a dooryard bird except in winter, when necessity now and
then drives one to a feeding station, but even then he
spends most of his time in the shrubbery, coming out only to
secure food. He may be found along bushy fences and
roadsides, and often finds food or sand in country roads."
B. H. Warren (1890) states that they occasionally "visit
potato vines and other plants on which the destructive
Colorado potato-beetle feeds."
F. M. Chapman (1932),writing of the
"southern race" of the towhee, comments that it "does not
associate with the northern bird, which is abundant in the
south in the winter. The latter selects haunts of much the
same nature as those in which it passes the summer, while
the southern bird lives in heavy growths of scrub
palmetto."
My own experiences in the Gainesville
region (where Chapman spent much of his time) and elsewhere
over the entire range of P. e. alleni do not confirm
Chapman's observations. Racially mixed flocks do occur in
winter, and frequently. P. e. alleni is quite commonly found
in habitats other than that of scrub palmetto. Sandpine
(Pinus clausa) scrub in both the coastal dune and "Big
Scrub" areas of Florida have this white-eyed towhee as a
very conspicuous element along with the Florida Jay
Aphelocama c. coerulescens. When I spent a summer on Cape
Cod, Mass., I was impressed by the obvious gross similarity
of the species preferred habitats there and in Florida. The
habitat of birds from near the type locality of P. e.
canaster (Mobile, Ala.) and P. e. rileyi (Brunswick, Ga.) do
not differ radically from those in which the towhee is
abundant in peninsular Florida. In my experience, the
species frequents early seral stages in both xeric and mesic
successions, and whenever ruderal conditions approximate
these natural situati |