Feeding Behavior

Forages mostly or entirely on the ground, hopping about in relatively open areas, taking items from the ground or from plant stems.

Eggs

3-5, usually 4. White, unmarked. Details of incubation are not well known. Young: Both parents feed the nestlings. Age at which young leave the nest is not well known.

Young

Both parents feed the nestlings. Age at which young leave the nest is not well known.

Diet

Mainly insects and seeds. Summer diet is partly to mostly insects, especially grasshoppers, caterpillars, moths, and beetles, also many others. Young are fed almost entirely on insects. Also eats seeds, especially in fall and winter, mainly those of weeds and grasses.

Nesting

Somewhat irregular in its nesting, especially in western and northern parts of range; may appear in numbers and breed only in years with good rainfall. Male advertises territory with flight song display, flying up to about 20' and then gliding and fluttering down, while singing. In courtship, male may chase female, or may display with wings and tail partly spread and fluttering. Nest site is usually on the ground, well hidden among weeds or at the base of a bush. Sometimes up to a foot above ground in a low shrub. Nest is an open cup made of dry grass, weed stems, bark, plant fibers, lined with fine grass.