Clay-colored Sparrow
Spizella pallida

Conservation status | Surveys indicate a slight decline in numbers during recent decades; reasons not apparent. Nests often parasitized by Brown-headed Cowbirds. |
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Family | New World Sparrows |
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. |
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Feeding Behavior
Forages mostly while hopping on the ground, occasionally up in shrubs. Except when nesting, usually forages in flocks, sometimes mixed with other sparrows.
Eggs
3-5, usually 4. Pale blue-green, with dark brown spots usually concentrated at larger end. Incubation is mostly by female, about 10-14 days. Young: Both parents feed the nestlings. Young leave the nest about 7-9 days after hatching, jumping to ground and then scrambling into cover; unable to fly for about another week. 1 brood per year, sometimes 2.
Young
Both parents feed the nestlings. Young leave the nest about 7-9 days after hatching, jumping to ground and then scrambling into cover; unable to fly for about another week. 1 brood per year, sometimes 2.
Diet
Mostly seeds and insects. Diet is not known 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, damselflies, and many others, as well as spiders. Young are fed mostly insects.
Nesting
Males sing in spring to establish and defend nesting territories. During the breeding season, adults often forage away from nesting area, unlike most songbirds which do all their foraging within the breeding territory. Nest site is usually very low, either on ground or in low shrubs, up to 5' high. In some areas, nests built early in season placed on ground, later ones higher. Local populations often specialize in nest sites; in one Manitoba study, almost all nests built in snowberry bushes; other common sites include rosebushes and clumps of grass. Nest (built by female) is open cup of grass, weeds, twigs, rootlets, lined with fine grass, rootlets, animal hair.
Illustration © David Allen Sibley.
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Text © Kenn Kaufman, adapted from
Lives of North American Birds
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Migration
Often migrates in flocks. Migration is mostly through Great Plains; in fall, some strays reach both Atlantic and Pacific Coasts.

- All Seasons - Common
- All Seasons - Uncommon
- Breeding - Common
- Breeding - Uncommon
- Winter - Common
- Winter - Uncommon
- Migration - Common
- Migration - Uncommon
See a fully interactive migration map for this species on the Bird Migration Explorer.
Learn moreSongs and Calls
Series of 4 or 5 toneless, insect-like buzzes.Learn more about this sound collection.
How Climate Change Will Reshape the Range of the Clay-colored Sparrow
Audubon’s scientists have used 140 million bird observations and sophisticated climate models to project how climate change will affect this bird’s range in the future.
Zoom in to see how this species’s current range will shift, expand, and contract under increased global temperatures.
Climate threats facing the Clay-colored Sparrow
Choose a temperature scenario below to see which threats will affect this species as warming increases. The same climate change-driven threats that put birds at risk will affect other wildlife and people, too.