From Opus

Photo by Steve Messick
Near Riverside Reservoir, Weld County Colorado, June 2005

Spiza americana

[edit] Identification

6" (15 cm)
Male

• Yellow breast
• Black 'V' on throat
• Heavy bill
• Chestnut wing patch
  

Female

• Yellowish throat and breast
• Narrow streaks on sides

[edit] Similar Species

Female, 1st Spring
Photo by bobsofpa
Okeeheelee Park, Lake Worth, Florida, April 2011

Male resembles meadowlark. Female much like female House Sparrow.

[edit] Distribution

Breeds from eastern Montana and Great Lakes region south to Texas and Gulf Coast, locally farther east. Migrates through Central America where some winter, but it winters mainly in northern South America.
Since the 1920s, Dickcissel has begun to reoccupy, at least in small numbers, its former breeding range in the Atlantic Coast states. Overall, though, this species has recently exhibited population declines.

Was once commonly seen on farmland in the eastern states, especially on the Atlantic coastal plain, but disappeard by the middle of the last century and is now most numerous in the Midwest. It appears in small numbers on the East Coast during the fall migration and rarely but regularly in winter at feeders, often with House Sparrows.

[edit] Taxonomy

This is a monotypic species^[1], usually placed in the family Cardinalidae; some authorities have (in the past) placed it in the Icteridae (Blackbirds and Orioles).

[edit] Habitat

Open country in grain or hay fields and in weed patches.

[edit] Behaviour

Perches on stalks to pluck seeds, picks fallen seeds from ground.

[edit] Vocalisation

Song sounds like dick-dick-cissel, the first two notes being sharp sounds followed by a buzzy, almost hissed cissel; repeated over and over again from a conspicuous perch on a fence, bush, or weed.
Call: a distinctive buzzy note, often given in flight.

[edit] References

1. Clements, JF. 2011. The Clements Checklist of Birds of the World. 6th ed., with updates to August 2011. Ithaca: Cornell Univ. Press. ISBN 978-0801445019. Spreadsheet available at http://www.birds.cornell.edu/clementschecklist/downloadable-clements-checklist

• List of references

[edit] External Links