Illustration © David Allen Sibley.
Learn more about these drawings.
Text © Kenn Kaufman, adapted from
Lives of North American Birds
Photo: Rick & Nora Bowers/Vireo
Ammodramus savannarum
Conservation status | Still common in some areas but has declined significantly in others. Florida race is seriously endangered, with very limited range. |
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Family | New World Sparrows |
Habitat | Grassland, hayfields, prairies. Breeds in rather dry fields and prairies, especially those with fairly tall grass and weeds and a few scattered shrubs. Also nests in overgrown pastures and hayfields, and sometimes in fields of other crops. In Florida, nests in prairie with scattered palmettos. During migration and winter, found in many types of open fields. |
Forages while hopping or running on the ground, picking up items from the soil or from plant stems. Almost always forages alone.
4-5, sometimes 3-6. Creamy white, spotted with reddish brown and gray. Incubation is by female only, about 11-12 days. Young: Both parents feed the nestlings. Young leave the nest about 9 days after hatching, before they are able to fly well.
Both parents feed the nestlings. Young leave the nest about 9 days after hatching, before they are able to fly well.
Mostly insects and seeds. In summer feeds mostly on insects, including many grasshoppers, also beetles, caterpillars, ants, true bugs, and many others. Also eats spiders, snails, centipedes, and earthworms. Seeds are also important in diet, probably more so in winter, including those of weeds and grasses as well as waste grain.
May nest in small colonies; numbers in a given area often change markedly from year to year. Male sings from a low perch to defend territory; sometimes sings at night. In courtship, sometimes sings in flight. Nest site is on the ground, very well hidden at base of weed, shrub, or clump of grass. Often placed in slight depression, so that rim of nest is even with level of ground. Nest (probably built by female) is an open cup of dry grass, lined with fine grass, rootlets, sometimes animal hair. Usually has partly domed back and sides of grass woven into overhanging vegetation, leaving opening at front.
The only hope to prevent extinction may be to remove some of the last birds from the wild for captive breeding. This summer scientists scrambled to collect enough sparrows before the breeding season’s end.
These birds are barely hanging on in the wild, but there’s still hope.
With the help of Audubon Minnesota and some controlled fires, a local school recently restored an overgrown field into original prairie habitat.
Audubon’s goal for the Everglades is to reestablish colonies of wading birds that have been displaced
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