This highly variable, but distinctive species breeds along the California coast and also in the Great Basin but skips over most of interior California except during the winter and migration. Savannah Sparrow is the only member of the genus _Passerculus_. Birds breeding here have been assigned to _P. s. alaudinus_, sometimes called Bryants Savannah Sparrow, a California endemic and species of special concern because of recent declines and range contraction. It is more heavily streaked below than other populations. The name _sandwichensis_ refers to Sandwich Sound, Alaska, not to Hawaii.
