LeConte's sparrow (''Ammospiza leconteii'') is one of the smallest

New World sparrow New World sparrows are a group of mainly New World passerine birds, forming the family Passerellidae. They are seed-eating birds with conical bills, brown or gray in color, and many species have distinctive head patterns. Although they share t ...

species in North America.Terres, J.K. (1980). The Audubon Society Encyclopedia of North American Birds. New York: Alfred A. Knopf It is a very secretive bird that prefers to spend most of its time on the ground under the cover of tall grasses. They are typically very difficult to flush, often only flushing at a distance of 1–3 m as they prefer to run across the ground.LeConte's sparrow. (n.d.). Retrieved September 2011, from Cornell Lab of Ornithology: http://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Le_Contes_sparrow/lifehistory When they do emerge they rarely fly more than a foot or two above the grass and often descend again within a few meters.Vanner, M. (2004). ''The Encyclopedia of North American Birds''. Bath: Parragon Publishing. Because it is so rarely seen, there are still many gaps in knowledge about the LeConte's sparrow. Nests are often very hard to find, and individuals are more often identified by sound than by sight.

Description

LeConte's sparrow is a small sparrow with a relatively large head, short grey

bill Bill(s) may refer to: Common meanings * Banknote, paper cash (especially in the United States) * Bill (law), a proposed law put before a legislature * Invoice, commercial document issued by a seller to a buyer * Bill, a bird or animal's beak Plac ...

and short pointed tail. It has a buffy yellow-orange face with grey

cheek The cheeks ( la, buccae) constitute the area of the face below the eyes and between the nose and the left or right ear. "Buccal" means relating to the cheek. In humans, the region is innervated by the buccal nerve. The area between the insi ...

s, and a dark brown crown with a white central stripe. The nape of the neck is lilac grey with chestnut streaks, and the back is streaked with brown and beige. Its belly is off white, while the breast and sides are a buffy orange-yellow with dark brown streaks. The feet and legs are a brownish-pink colour.

Measurements

The measurements for both sexes are: * Length: 4.7 in/ 12 cm * Wingspan: 7.1 in/18 cm * Weight: 0.4-0.6 oz/ 12-16 g

Similar birds

LeConte's sparrow is commonly mistaken for:Earley, C.G. (2003). ''sparrows and Finches of the Great Lakes Region and eastern North America''. Firefly Books *

Nelson's sparrow Nelson's sparrow (''Ammospiza nelsoni'') is a small New World sparrow. This bird was named after Edward William Nelson, an American naturalist. Formerly, this bird and the saltmarsh sparrow were considered to be a single species, the sharp-tailed ...

* Grasshopper sparrow *

Henslow's sparrow __NOTOC__ Henslow's sparrow (''Centronyx henslowii'') is a passerine bird in the family Passerellidae. It was named by John James Audubon in honor of John Stevens Henslow. It was originally classified in the genus '' Emberiza'' and called ''Hen ...

* Saltmarsh sparrow *

Baird's sparrow Baird's sparrow (''Centronyx bairdii'') is a species of North American birds in the family Passerellidae of order Passeriformes. It is a migratory bird native to the United States, Canada, and Mexico. Description The Baird's sparrow can be ide ...

There has been a recorded case of a LeConte's sparrow hybridized with a Nelson's sparrow, in June 1949 in Ontario.

Taxonomy

LeConte's sparrow is a member of the order Passerifomes, which are the perching birds, sometimes less accurately referred to as the

songbird A songbird is a bird belonging to the suborder Passeri of the perching birds ( Passeriformes). Another name that is sometimes seen as the scientific or vernacular name is Oscines, from Latin ''oscen'', "songbird". The Passeriformes contains 50 ...

s. It is from the

family Family (from la, familia) is a group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or affinity (by marriage or other relationship). The purpose of the family is to maintain the well-being of its members and of society. Idea ...

Passerellidae New World sparrows are a group of mainly New World passerine birds, forming the family Passerellidae. They are seed-eating birds with conical bills, brown or gray in color, and many species have distinctive head patterns. Although they share t ...

, which is characterized by species of small birds with bills adapted to seed eating. LeConte's sparrow was placed in the genus ''Ammodramus'' in the past and a molecular phylogeny of the related groups identified that genus as being polyphyletic and recommended the group to be split up. This species falls within the

genus Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms as well as viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus comes above species and below family. In binomial n ...

Ammospiza ''Ammospiza'' is a genus of birds in the family Passerellidae, in the group known as American sparrows. Species * Seaside sparrow, ''Ammospiza maritima'' ** Dusky seaside sparrow, ''Ammospiza maritima nigrescens'' ( extinct, 1987) ** Cape Sabl ...

'' clade which includes ''A. maritimus'', ''A. nelsoni'', and ''A. caudacutus'', which are the ground-loving sparrows that prefer staying in tall, thick grasses to perching on trees. The LeConte's sparrow was discovered by

John James Audubon John James Audubon (born Jean-Jacques Rabin; April 26, 1785 – January 27, 1851) was an American self-trained artist, naturalist, and ornithologist. His combined interests in art and ornithology turned into a plan to make a complete pictoria ...

, and it was thought that he named this bird after a friend, Doctor LeConte. It is generally believed that he meant

John Lawrence LeConte John Lawrence LeConte (May 13, 1825 – November 15, 1883) was an American entomologist of the 19th century, responsible for naming and describing approximately half of the insect taxa known in the United States during his lifetime,

, although some feel that he was referring to another John LeConte, also a doctor, and John Lawrence's cousin.

Habitat and distribution

Range

LeConte's sparrow breeds in select areas of north eastern

British Columbia British Columbia (commonly abbreviated as BC) is the westernmost Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada, situated between the Pacific Ocean and the Rocky Mountains. It has a diverse geography, with rugged landscapes that include ...

, across

Alberta Alberta ( ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada. It is part of Western Canada and is one of the three prairie provinces. Alberta is bordered by British Columbia to the west, Saskatchewan to the east, the Northwest Ter ...

Saskatchewan Saskatchewan ( ; ) is a province in western Canada, bordered on the west by Alberta, on the north by the Northwest Territories, on the east by Manitoba, to the northeast by Nunavut, and on the south by the U.S. states of Montana and North ...

and southern

Manitoba , image_map = Manitoba in Canada 2.svg , map_alt = Map showing Manitoba's location in the centre of Southern Canada , Label_map = yes , coordinates = , capital = Win ...

as well as central

Ontario Ontario ( ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada.Ontario is located in the geographic eastern half of Canada, but it has historically and politically been considered to be part of Central Canada. Located in Central C ...

and into

Quebec Quebec ( ; )According to the Government of Canada, Canadian government, ''Québec'' (with the acute accent) is the official name in Canadian French and ''Quebec'' (without the accent) is the province's official name in Canadian English is ...

; and as far south as northern

Michigan Michigan () is a U.S. state, state in the Great Lakes region, Great Lakes region of the Upper Midwest, upper Midwestern United States. With a population of nearly 10.12 million and an area of nearly , Michigan is the List of U.S. states and ...

Montana Montana () is a U.S. state, state in the Mountain states, Mountain West List of regions of the United States#Census Bureau-designated regions and divisions, division of the Western United States. It is bordered by Idaho to the west, North ...

and

Minnesota Minnesota () is a state in the upper midwestern region of the United States. It is the 12th largest U.S. state in area and the List of U.S. states and territories by population, 22nd most populous, with over 5.75 million residents. Minne ...

. It winters in the south eastern

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., federal district, five ma ...

; as far west as central

Texas Texas (, ; Spanish language, Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2 ...

and as far north as central

Illinois Illinois ( ) is a state in the Midwestern United States. Its largest metropolitan areas include the Chicago metropolitan area, and the Metro East section, of Greater St. Louis. Other smaller metropolitan areas include, Peoria and Roc ...

and

Missouri Missouri is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. Ranking List of U.S. states and territories by area, 21st in land area, it is bordered by eight states (tied for the most with Tennessee ...

.Manitoba Naturalists Society (Holland, G.E., C.E. Curtis and P. Taylor). (2003). The Birds of Manitoba: Manitoba Avian Research Committee.

Habitat

LeConte's sparrow prefers moist open grassy areas with sufficient vegetation cover to provide shelter. Known habitat use includes meadows, fields, crop stubble, shallow marshy edges, prairie, and occasionally fens and lake-shores within the boreal forest. Studies have shown that vegetation seems to have a greater impact on the abundance of this bird than other factors like climate or patch size.Winter, M., J.A. Shaffer, D.H. Johnson, T.M. Donovan, W.D. Svedarsky, P.W. Jones and B.R. Euliss. (2005). Habitat and Nesting of Le Conte’s sparrows in the Northern Tallgrass Prairie. Journal of Field Ornithology, 76(1), 61-71. Winter ''et al.'' (2005) says that it can be found at highest densities in areas with a "moderate amounts of bare ground". Agriculture and drainage of these areas is currently the greatest threat to the LeConte's sparrow.Alsop, F.J. (2002). Birds of Canada. Toronto: Dorling Kindersley Handbooks

Behaviour

Vocalizations

The male's song resembles a grasshopper buzz with a short squeaky introductory note and ending with a short chirp. It is often described as ''tika-zzzzzzzzzzzz-tik'' while the call is a short ''tsip''. It is most commonly confused with the song of the

. The male generally sings from a concealed location, but can also be seen singing from the top of protruding grass stems, or occasionally in flight.

Diet

Diet in the summer is mostly

insect Insects (from Latin ') are pancrustacean hexapod invertebrates of the class Insecta. They are the largest group within the arthropod phylum. Insects have a chitinous exoskeleton, a three-part body (head, thorax and abdomen), three pairs ...

s such as

weevil Weevils are beetles belonging to the superfamily Curculionoidea, known for their elongated snouts. They are usually small, less than in length, and herbivorous. Approximately 97,000 species of weevils are known. They belong to several families, ...

leafhopper A leafhopper is the common name for any species from the family Cicadellidae. These minute insects, colloquially known as hoppers, are plant feeders that suck plant sap from grass, shrubs, or trees. Their hind legs are modified for jumping, and ...

leaf beetle The insects of the beetle family Chrysomelidae are commonly known as leaf beetles, and include over 37,000 (and probably at least 50,000) species in more than 2,500 genera, making up one of the largest and most commonly encountered of all beetle ...

s, stinkbugs,

caterpillar Caterpillars ( ) are the larva, larval stage of members of the order Lepidoptera (the insect order comprising butterfly, butterflies and moths). As with most common names, the application of the word is arbitrary, since the larvae of sawfly ...

moth Moths are a paraphyletic group of insects that includes all members of the order Lepidoptera that are not butterflies, with moths making up the vast majority of the order. There are thought to be approximately 160,000 species of moth, many of ...

s and

spider Spiders (order Araneae) are air-breathing arthropods that have eight legs, chelicerae with fangs generally able to inject venom, and spinnerets that extrude silk. They are the largest order of arachnids and rank seventh in total species d ...

s.Easterla, D. A. (1962). ''Foods of Le Conte's sparrow''. Auk, 272-273. During the winter time the main diet consists of

seeds A seed is an Plant embryogenesis, embryonic plant enclosed in a testa (botany), protective outer covering, along with a food reserve. The formation of the seed is a part of the process of reproduction in seed plants, the spermatophytes, includ ...

grass Poaceae () or Gramineae () is a large and nearly ubiquitous family of monocotyledonous flowering plants commonly known as grasses. It includes the cereal grasses, bamboos and the grasses of natural grassland and species cultivated in law ...

es and

weed A weed is a plant considered undesirable in a particular situation, "a plant in the wrong place", or a plant growing where it is not wanted.Harlan, J. R., & deWet, J. M. (1965). Some thoughts about weeds. ''Economic botany'', ''19''(1), 16-24. ...

s such as northern dropseed, Indian grass, yellow foxtail, panic-grass, scorpion-grass,

little bluestem ''Schizachyrium scoparium'', commonly known as little bluestem or beard grass, is a species of North American prairie grass native to most of the contiguous United States (except California, Nevada, and Oregon) as well as a small area north of t ...

, and

big bluestem ''Andropogon gerardi'', commonly known as big bluestem, is a species of tall grass native to much of the Great Plains and grassland regions of central and eastern North America. It is also known as tall bluestem, bluejoint, and turkeyfoot. Taxo ...

Reproduction

Mating In biology, mating is the pairing of either opposite- sex or hermaphroditic organisms for the purposes of sexual reproduction. ''Fertilization'' is the fusion of two gametes. '' Copulation'' is the union of the sex organs of two sexually rep ...

can start as early as late April but peaks in mid-May. Males will sing from the cover of dense grasses, perched on tall grass or in flight. Clutches range from two to six eggs with four being the most common. Incubation is done solely by the female, though both parents aid in feeding. Incubation lasts an average of 11–13 days.

Hatchling In oviparous biology, a hatchling is a newly hatched fish, amphibian, reptile, or bird. A group of mammals called monotremes lay eggs, and their young are hatchlings as well. Fish Fish hatchlings generally do not receive parental care, similar ...

s are

altricial In biology, altricial species are those in which the young are underdeveloped at the time of birth, but with the aid of their parents mature after birth. Precocial species are those in which the young are relatively mature and mobile from the mome ...

with dull brown

downy Downy, also known as Lenor in Europe, Russia and Japan, is a brand of fabric softener produced by Procter & Gamble that was introduced in 1960. Lenor is a brand name of fabric softener and dryer sheets, also produced by P&G, sold in Europe, Ru ...

patches.Baicich, P.J. and C. J. Harrison. (1997). ''A Guide to the Nests, Eggs, and Nestlings of North American Birds Second Edition''. Natural World Academic Press. Pairs will have one or two broods per year. Due to the secretive nature of this bird little is known about the period of time between hatching and fledging.

Nest

Nests are built by the female and are

cup A cup is an open-top used to hold hot or cold liquids for pouring or drinking; while mainly used for drinking, it also can be used to store solids for pouring (e.g., sugar, flour, grains, salt). Cups may be made of glass, metal, china, c ...

shaped, made from fine grasses and lined with soft grass and hair. They are usually attached to standing grasses or

sedges The Cyperaceae are a family of graminoid (grass-like), monocotyledonous flowering plants known as sedges. The family is large, with some 5,500 known species described in about 90 genera, the largest being the "true sedges" genus ''Carex'' wi ...

and are built on or close to the ground.

Eggs

Eggs Humans and human ancestors have scavenged and eaten animal eggs for millions of years. Humans in Southeast Asia had domesticated chickens and harvested their eggs for food by 1,500 BCE. The most widely consumed eggs are those of fowl, especial ...

are 18 X 14 mm long and are sub elliptical in shape. Eggs are white with undertones of green, grey or blue; covered in fine brown dots, speckles or splotches usually clustered near large end of egg.

Interesting facts

* Their nests are often

parasitized Parasitism is a close relationship between species, where one organism, the parasite, lives on or inside another organism, the host, causing it some harm, and is adapted structurally to this way of life. The entomologist E. O. Wilson has ...

brown-headed cowbird The brown-headed cowbird (''Molothrus ater'') is a small, obligate brood parasitic icterid native to temperate and subtropical North America. It is a permanent resident in the southern parts of its range; northern birds migrate to the southern ...

s. * It is also known as LeConte's Bunting. * They were once known as "stink birds", because they were often chosen over

quail Quail is a collective name for several genera of mid-sized birds generally placed in the order Galliformes. The collective noun for a group of quail is a flock, covey, or bevy. Old World quail are placed in the family Phasianidae, and New ...

by hunting dogs. * They are much more commonly heard than seen. One survey of LeConte's identified 86 males by sound, but only 8 of those males by sight. * Very few LeConte's have ever been banded. Between 1967 and 1984, only 355 were actually banded, and none were ever re-captured.

References

External links

Le Conte's sparrow species account
- Cornell Lab of Ornithology

- USGS Patuxent Bird Identification InfoCenter

- Northern Prairie Wildlife Research Center {{Taxonbar, from=Q28812551

LeConte's sparrow LeConte's sparrow (''Ammospiza leconteii'') is one of the smallest New World sparrow species in North America.Terres, J.K. (1980). The Audubon Society Encyclopedia of North American Birds. New York: Alfred A. Knopf It is a very secretive bird t ...

Birds of Canada Native birds of the Plains-Midwest (United States)

Taxa named by John James Audubon