Tuesday, January 29, 2013

Clay-colored Sparrow

Clay-colored Sparrow
The clay-colored sparrow breeds in the open grasslands of central Canada and the north central United States. It is a ground foraging species, feeding primarily on seeds of grasses and weeds. They will also eat fruits, berries, buds and insects. They feed on insects more often later in the summer and also feed them to their young. Clay-colored sparrows often forage off of their territory and are sometimes mixed in with other species of sparrows. Because of this their breeding territory is generally smaller.  
Clay-colored Sparrow
Male clay-colored sparrows arrive on the breeding territory first. They are often seen perched on a bush singing to announce their territory to prospective rivals and seek a receptive female. Once a pair finds each other they are magnanimous for the season. The female builds cup shaped nest placed on the ground or low in a bush. Nesting occurres in June and July. As the temperature begins to turn cold the sparrows migrate south to their wintering grounds in Texas and Mexico.




14 comments:

EG CameraGirl said...

Very cool photos! I have yet to spot one of these but maybe I'll be lucky this summer!

FAB said...

Super pics. Very distinctive head pattern.

Justine said...

gorgeous shots

photowannabe said...

Love the perky little sparrows. I didn't know that they ate both seeds and insects. I always thought it was an either -or- thing with birds.

Richard Lawry said...

That's a species I haven't seen. I have seen a LeConte's Sparrow a couple of times here in Arkansas. They are very uncommon here.
An Arkies Musings


PhenoMenon, ABCW Team said...

The second one is brilliantly taken. Nice CATCH

PhenoMenon, ABCW Team

TexWisGirl said...

very pretty!

mick said...

Great photos but I must say I find all those different sparrows you have over there very confusing!

DeniseinVA said...

Marvelous!

Roger Owen Green said...

wow, there are so MANY sparrow types!

ROG, ABC Wednesday team

HansHB said...

Nice photos of this cute sparrow!

genie said...

Beautiful shots of the sparrows. I would love the songs coming out of the mouth of #2. So much detail. genie

Stewart M said...

Great looking bird.

Cheers and thanks for linking to WBW.

Stewart M - Melbourne

Mary Howell Cromer said...

Fantastic images, especially fond of the one singing~