From Opus

Spiza americana

Photo by Steve Messick
Photographed near Riverside Reservoir, Weld County Colorado.

[edit] Identification

6" (15 cm). Male like miniature meadowlark (yellow breast with black V), but has heavy bill and chestnut wing patch. Female much like female House Sparrow, but with narrow streaks along sides, and yellowish throat and breast.

[edit] Distribution

Breeds from eastern Montana and Great Lakes region south to Texas and Gulf Coast, locally farther east. Winters mainly in 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.

[edit] Taxonomy

This is a monotypic species 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] Voice:

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] Discussion:

Formerly common in farming regions of the eastern states, especially on the Atlantic coastal plain, the Dickcissel disappeared from that region 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.

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