Field Sparrow (Spizella pusilla)

County List:

Rule:

Mixed Forested/Nonforested or Nonforested Landscapes

1st alternative:
      (Jack Pine (Regen))
      or (Conifer Plantations (Regen))
   adjacent to:
      Grass

2nd alternative:
      Grass
      or Upland Brush
      or Savanna

3rd alternative:
      Fields/Pastures
   containing:
      (Deciduous or Coniferous Inclusions)

Habitat List:

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Literature:

Habitat: The Field Sparrow nests in abandoned farms, power line rights-of-way, young pine plantings, and regions where fires have passed over the land a few years earlier. It is found where the vegetation is grass and scattered small bushes, trees, or coniferous plantings. Its preferred habitat, as shown by the Atlas Habitat Survey, is old fields, followed by shrub uplands. By contrast, only one observation (out of 125) was in a shrub wetland.

On a study area in Pennfield Township, Calhoun Co., 119 of 273 May nests were placed on the ground beneath the overhanging umbrella-like stems and dead leaves of fall witch grass. Only three ground nests were recorded in June and thereafter, bushes or small trees were used for nest sites. Favorites were New Jersey tea, small hawthorns, and small oaks. A trend in height opposite from that for nest placement is seen in foraging sites. The caterpillars, homopterans, hemipterans, and spiders fed to nestlings seem to be gathered mostly from woody vegetation in May, whereas ground foraging is more important later.

The Field Sparrow has many enemies, including house cats and Blue Jays, but the worst may be the Brown-headed Cowbird. A high percentage of the cowbird eggs laid in old field habitats are placed in Field Sparrow nests. Desertion is high at these sites.

Probably the Field Sparrow was much scarcer in the state prior to settlement. Clearing of the land, followed especially in the north by extensive fires, must have multiplied favorable habitat. Like the Clay-colored Sparrow, this species tends to abandon old fields that are turned into residential developments. The Chipping Sparrow moves into the lawns and blue spruces of the suburbs.

Habitat: Breeding: Old fields with scattered woody vegetation, also uses abandoned hayfields, briar thickets, and woodland edges.

Special Habitat Requirements: Open areas with low shrubs or trees.

Habitat: Brushy pastures, brush, scrub. Found at all seasons in brushy overgrown fields, second growth, woodland edges, hedgerows in open country. Sometimes around brushy edges of marshes. Does not usually live in wide-open grassy fields unless they contain scattered shrubs.

Diet: Seeds and insects. Diet is more than 90% seeds in winter, mainly small seeds of grasses. Also eats many grass seeds in summer, but insects make up more than 50% of summer diet. Nestlings are fed spiders and insects, especially caterpillars, with many grasshoppers fed to larger young.

Nest: Site on or near the ground in clumps of grass or dense low bushes or saplings. Early nests generally on or near ground, later nests often higher. Nest is open cup woven of grasses, lined with finer plant material and hair. Nests parasitized by cowbirds are often deserted.