From Opus

Spizella pusilla

Photo by richard bledsoe
Photographed: Village Creek State Park, Arkansas.

[edit] Identification

Upperparts are brown with pale feather fringes and white wing bars. Breast and flanks are pale brown and belly is white. Tail is forked. The head shows rusty crown and eyeline separated by a grey supercilium. There is a white eye ring and the bill is pink.

[edit] Similar species

Summer plumage Chipping Sparrow differs in black eyeline, white supercilium and grey flanks.

[edit] Distribution

These birds are permanent residents in the southern parts of their range. Northern birds migrate to the southern United States and Mexico.

[edit] Taxonomy

Polytypic. Consists of two subspecies:

• S. p. arenacea (Chadbourne, 1886)
• S. p. pusilla (A. Wilson, 1810)

[edit] Habitat

Their breeding habitat is shrubby fields across eastern North America.

[edit] Behaviour

[edit] Diet

These birds forage on the ground or in low vegetation, mainly eating insects and seeds. They may feed in small flocks outside of the nesting season.

[edit] Breeding

The nest is an open cup on the ground under a clump of grass or in a small thicket.

[edit] External Links