Montana Field Guide

Slight sexual dimorphism in color and size. Typical of genus Spizella—small size, slim build, notched tail and wing bars. Adult plumage upperparts a mixture of grays and browns with sharp blackish streakings, unstreaked grayish-white underparts. Head markings distinctive: gray or white median crown stripe, brown ear patches outlined with dark brown, dark whisker, gray nuchal collar contrasting with rest of plumage, flesh-colored bill dusky above and at tip. Brown rump and head markings separate it from Chipping Sparrow. Similar to Brewer’s Sparrow, but with more strongly patterned head markings, especially rich brown sides of crown overlain with wide black streaks contrasting at a distance with pale supercilium and median crown stripe (Kaufman 1990). (Knapton, R. W. 1994. Clay-colored Sparrow (Spizella pallida). In The Birds of North America, No. 120 (A. Poole and F. Gill, Eds.). Philadelphia: The Academy of Natural Sciences; Washington, D.C.: The American Ornithologists’ Union.)

Species prefers open shrubland, thickets along edges of waterways, second-growth areas, and forest edges and burns.

Diet consists of numerous varieties of seeds and invertebrates.

Double brooded species with three to four eggs per brood. Incubation period 10-12 days. Young able to fly eight to nine days after hatch.