LeConte's Sparrow

Overview

LeConte's Sparrow (Ammospiza leconteii), also known as LeConte's bunting, is one of the smallest New World sparrow species in North America. It belongs to the family Passerellidae and is classified as Least Concern on the IUCN Red List.

Identification

• Small sparrow with a relatively large head, short grey bill, and short pointed tail.
• Buffy yellow-orange face with grey cheeks and a dark brown crown featuring a white central stripe.
• Back is streaked with brown and beige; breast and sides are buffy orange-yellow with dark brown streaks.
• Song resembles a grasshopper buzz, often described as tika-zzzzzzzzzzzz-tik, while the call is a short tsip.

Habitat

Prefers moist open grassy areas with sufficient vegetation cover, such as meadows, fields, crop stubble, shallow marshy edges, and prairies. Breeds in select areas of Canada, including northeastern British Columbia, across Alberta, Saskatchewan, southern Manitoba, central Ontario, and into Quebec, as well as northern Michigan, Montana, and Minnesota. Winters in the southeastern United States, ranging from central Texas to central Illinois and Missouri.

Diet

In summer, the diet consists mostly of insects such as weevils, leafhoppers, leaf beetles, stinkbugs, caterpillars, moths, and spiders. During winter, the main diet shifts to seeds of grasses and weeds, including northern dropseed, Indian grass, yellow foxtail, panic-grass, scorpion-grass, little bluestem, and big bluestem.

Did you know?

The bird was first described by John Latham in 1790 but only received a valid binomial name from John James Audubon in 1844, who named it after his friend, Doctor Le Conte, a naturalist.