Vesper Sparrow (Pooecetes gramineus)

County List:

Rule:

Mixed Forested/Nonforested or Nonforested Landscapes

1st alternative:
      Savanna

2nd alternative:
      Fields/Pastures
   containing:
      Perches

Habitat List:

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Literature:

Habitat: The Vesper Sparrow prefers short vegetation found in dry, well-drained uplands, meadows, savanna, prairie, and roadsides. Old fields in early stages of succession on poor soil, row crops, and golf courses are also used. Availability of song perches may be important since males frequently sing from the tops of small trees and shrubs. The Atlas Habitat Survey indicated that old fields, row crops, and hayfields are used in that order. Some birds occur in pastures, shrubby uplands, dry coniferous and deciduous forest, orchards, grasslands, and residential-roadside-hedgerow areas. In the Upper Peninsula, Vesper Sparrows were only found in old fields and grasslands.

The nest is placed on the ground in a small hollow made by the bird. It is usually at the base of a clump of vegetation and may be well concealed or exposed. The bulky nest is built with coarse grasses or other materials and is lined with fine grasses, rootlets, and hairs.

Changes in farming practices have been implicated in the decline of Vesper Sparrows. Intensive farming using chemicals and large-scale tillage in the southern Lower Peninsula may be the most important factor in their decline, as it also seems to be for the Savannah Sparrow.

Habitat: Breeding: Short-grass meadows, pastures, hayfields, cultivated grain fields, dry open uplands, burned and cut-over areas in forests, country roadsides. Wiens found that birds favor sparsely vegetated uplands and may use areas with widely scattered shrubs.

Special Habitat Requirements: Open areas with short herbaceous vegetation, conspicuous singing perches.

Habitat: Meadows, fields, prairies, roadsides. At all seasons, favors open grassy or weedy fields, often in rather dry situations with much open soil. May be in weedy roadsides, gravel pits, high mountain grasslands, stubble fields, grassy areas just above sandy beaches. Often breeds where there are a few taller plants for use as song perches.

Diet: Mostly insects and seeds. Feeds on many insects, especially in summer, including beetles, grasshoppers, caterpillars, moths, and true bugs, also spiders and other invertebrates. Also eats many seeds, especially in winter, mainly those of weeds and grasses.

Nest: Site is on the ground, often in a slight depression and placed at the base of a grass clump, weed, or shrub. Nest is a bulky open cup of grass and weeds, lined with fine grass, rootlets, animal hair.