Illustration © David Allen Sibley.
Learn more about these drawings.
Text © Kenn Kaufman, adapted from
Lives of North American Birds
Photo: G. Lasley/Vireo
Vesper Sparrow
Pooecetes gramineus
| Conservation status | Has declined seriously in numbers in some parts of the East, probably owing to loss of habitat. In the West, still widespread and common. |
|---|---|
| Family | New World Sparrows |
| 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. |
Photo Gallery
Feeding Behavior
Forages mostly or entirely on the ground, often on bare soil between grass or weed clumps. Except during nesting season, often forages in small, loose flocks.
Eggs
3-4, sometimes 2-6. Whitish to pale greenish white, blotched with brown and gray. Incubation is mostly by female, about 11-13 days. When disturbed at the nest, the female may flutter away as if injured, perhaps to lure intruders away. Young: Both parents feed the nestlings. Young leave the nest 1-2 weeks after hatching, usually around 9-10 days. 1-2 broods per year, sometimes 3.
Young
Both parents feed the nestlings. Young leave the nest 1-2 weeks after hatching, usually around 9-10 days. 1-2 broods per year, sometimes 3.
Diet
Mostly insects and seeds. Feeds on many insects, especially in summer, including beetles, grasshoppers, caterpillars, moths, true bugs, and many others, also spiders and other invertebrates. Also eats many seeds, especially in winter, mainly those of weeds and grasses.
Nesting
Male defends nesting territory by singing from a prominent raised perch. Courtship may involve male running about on ground near female, with his wings and tail spread, sometimes fluttering into the air. 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 made of grass and weeds, lined with fine grass, rootlets, animal hair.
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- All Seasons - Common
- All Seasons - Uncommon
- Breeding - Common
- Breeding - Uncommon
- Winter - Common
- Winter - Uncommon
- Migration - Common
- Migration - Uncommon
Songs and Calls
Song a slow series of 4 clear musical notes, the last 2 higher, ending in a descending series of trills-sometimes rendered as come-come-where-where-all-together-down-the-hill.How climate change could affect this bird's range
In the broadest and most detailed study of its kind, Audubon scientists have used hundreds of thousands of citizen-science observations and sophisticated climate models to predict how birds in the U.S. and Canada will react to climate change.
Read more: climate.audubon.org
Each map is a visual guide to where a particular bird species may find the climate conditions it needs to survive in the future. We call this the bird’s “climatic range.”
The colors indicate the season in which the bird may find suitable conditions— blue for winter, yellow for summer (breeding), and green for where they overlap (indicating their presence year-round).
The darker the shaded area, the more likely it is the bird species will find suitable climate conditions to survive there.
The outline of the approximate current range for each season remains fixed in each frame, allowing you to compare how the range will expand, contract, or shift in the future.
The first frame of the animation shows where the bird can find a suitable climate today (based on data from 2000). The next three frames predict where this bird’s suitable climate may shift in the future—one frame each for 2020, 2050, and 2080.
You can play or pause the animation with the orange button in the lower left, or select an individual frame to study by clicking on its year.
Vesper Sparrow In the News More News
Podcast
Listen to the Elaborate Song of the Brewer's Sparrow
A resident of the sagebrush steppe, this little bird has one mighty complicated call.
Year Of The Bird
The United State of Birding
After a racist encounter in the field, a birder reflects on the disturbing incident and the community that helped lift him back up.
