Feeding Behavior

Does most of its foraging on the ground. Will scratch in the soil or leaf-litter to find food, making a little forward jump and then scratching back with both feet at once. Also does some foraging up in shrubs and sometimes in trees. Will hunt for food around picnic areas and campgrounds in the mountains.

Eggs

3-4, sometimes 5. Pale gray or bluish white, spotted with reddish brown. Incubation is by female only, about 15 days. Young: Both parents feed the nestlings. Young leave the nest about 10 days after hatching, cannot fly well for about another week. 2 or 3 broods per year.

Young

Both parents feed the nestlings. Young leave the nest about 10 days after hatching, cannot fly well for about another week. 2 or 3 broods per year.

Diet

Mostly seeds and insects. Diet is not known in detail; apparently feeds on insects more in summer than in winter. May eat mostly seeds, including those of weeds and grasses. Also known to eat some flowers, buds, and berries.

Nesting

Male sings to defend nesting territory, often from a perch high in a tree. Males also may be very aggressive in territorial defense, actively fighting with intruders of their own kind. In courtship, male may strut about near female with his tail spread widely, while giving a soft song. Nest site is usually on the ground, sometimes in a shrub or low tree but rarely more than a few feet high. Nests on ground are often placed in a slight depression and hidden under something such as a log, rock, base of a shrub, or overhanging clump of grass. Nest (built by female, sometimes with help from male) is shallow cup of grass, lined with fine grass and sometimes animal hair.