Clay-Colored Sparrow (Spizella pallida)

County List:

Rule:

Forested or Mixed Forested/Nonforested Landscapes

      (Jack Pine (Regen))
      or (Conifer Plantation (Regen))
      or (Mixed Pine (Regen))
      or Upland Brush
   adjacent to:
      Grass

Habitat List:

view size class definitions

Literature:

Habitat: Acceptable habitat for breeding includes abandoned shrubby fields, pine plantations, regenerating burns, and thickets. They seem to prefer grassy areas interspersed with small coniferous or deciduous trees and shrubs with nearby water. In Michigan, Clay-colored Sparrows appear restricted to upland hills and plains. In the northern Lower Peninsula, they occur frequently in areas occupied by the Kirtland's Warbler.

The nest is a compact grass cup with a lining of fine materials. It is placed above the ground in a grass tuft or at the base of a shrub, or in a low shrub or small tree where it is well hidden. Nests in dens, tall vegetation and those made later in the season tend to be higher above ground.

The relatively uncommon status of the Clay-colored Sparrow in Michigan may change as a result of continued drought and intensive forest management. Larger areas of preferred habitat may become available in both the Upper Peninsula and Lower Peninsula. There also may be increases in the southern Lower Peninsula if current trends in reversion of marginal farm lands to brushy habitat and planting of Christmas trees continues.

Habitat: Scrub, brushy prairies, jack pines. Breeds in shrubby areas including stands of bushes on open prairies, edges of woodlands, young second growth, understory in jack pine woods. May overlap with similar sparrows, but generally in more open areas than Chipping Sparrow, heavier brush than Brewer's Sparrow. In migration and winter, found in brushy fields, thickets, dry scrub, desert grassland.

Diet: Mostly seeds and insects. Diet not know in detail, but feeds mostly on seeds at most times of year, especially those of weeds and grasses; also some leaf buds, catkins, berries. Also eats many insects, especially in summer, including caterpillars, grasshoppers, true bugs, ants, and damselflies, as well as spiders. Young are fed mostly insects.

Nest: Site is usually very low, either on ground or in low shrubs, up to 5 feet high. In some areas, nests built early in season are placed on ground, later ones higher. Local populations often specialized in nest sites; in one Manitoba study, almost all nests were built in snowberry bushes; other common sites include rosebushes and clumps of grass. Nest is open cup of grass, weeds, twigs, rootlets, lined with fine grass, more rootlets, animal hair. Nests often parasitized by cowbirds.