Cassin's Sparrow

Overview

Cassin's sparrow (Peucaea cassinii) is a medium-sized, plain grayish passerine bird native to North America. It is characterized by its long tail and distinctive vocalizations, which serve as the primary means of identification.

Identification

• Plain grayish plumage with a brown head streaked with gray and dark brown, featuring a buff supercilium and thin, dark brown submoustachial stripe.
• Fairly large size, ranging from 5 to 6 inches, with males being slightly bigger than females.
• Long, roundish tail that is gray-brown with white corners, often appearing in flight with noticeable white tips.
• Distinctive song described as a high, musical trill, often delivered while gliding down from the air in a behavior known as skylarking.

Habitat

The species inhabits brushy grasslands that contain both a short grass component and a shrub component, such as mesquite, sage, or oaks. Its range extends from western Nebraska to north-central Mexico, though it is rarely found in the northern parts of this range. It is considered a nomadic species with population numbers that fluctuate annually.

Diet

Cassin's sparrows forage mostly on the ground, hopping about in open areas to take items from the soil or plant stems. Their diet consists of insects, particularly grasshoppers, caterpillars, and beetles in summer, as well as seeds of weeds and grasses in autumn and winter. Young birds are fed almost entirely on insects.

Did you know?

Males of this species are among the few sparrows known to 'skylark', flying up to 5–10 metres into the air before singing as they glide or flutter down in an arc. There is enough individual variation in their primary song that it has been used to identify specific males in population studies.