Inside Front Cover “Of Louisiana’s 33 recorded sparrows, What is a sparrow? only seven species breed here...” Greg Lavaty, Photographer (Vesper Sparrow) Generally, sparrows are characterized as small, gray or brown- Savannah Sparrow, Henslow’s Sparrow, Le Conte’s Sparrow, streaked, conical-billed birds that live on or near the ground. The Nelson’s Sparrow, Fox Sparrow, Song Sparrow, Lincoln’s “Fourteen species migrate cryptic blend of gray, white, black, and brown hues that comprise Sparrow, Swamp Sparrow, White-throated Sparrow, White- through and/or overwinter here a typical sparrow’s color pattern are the result of tens of thousands crowned Sparrow, Dark-eyed Junco, and Lapland Longspur. of sparrow generations that lived in grassland and brushland on a regular basis.” habitats. The triangular or cone-shaped bills inherent to most all Twelve additional species have been recorded here on rare/ sparrow species are perfectly adapted for a life of granivory – of irregular occasions: Green-tailed Towhee, Spotted Towhee, crushing and husking seeds. Cassin’s Sparrow, American Tree Sparrow, Brewer’s Sparrow, Lark Bunting, Baird’s Sparrow, Golden-crowned Sparrow, Sparrows possess well-developed claws on their toes, the Harris’s Sparrow, McCown’s Longspur, Smith’s Longspur, evolutionary result of so much time spent on the ground and Chestnut-collared Longspur. Of these, Spotted Towhee scratching for seeds through leaf litter and other duff. and Harris’s Sparrow can very nearly be considered a Additionally, most species incorporate a substantial amount of regularly occurring species here, as several reports are filed insect, spider, snail, and other invertebrate food items into their from Louisiana each winter, most often involving birds that diets, especially during the spring and summer months. frequently remain in single locales for long periods. Greg Lavaty, Photographer (Lark Sparrow) New World sparrows belong to the bird family Emberizidae. Here, it is appropriate to note that the abundant and familiar David Cagnolatti, Photographer Here in North America, sparrows are divided into 13 genera, House Sparrow (Passer domesticus) is actually a member of the (Clay-colored Sparrow) which also include the towhees (genus Pipilo), longspurs (genus “Weaver Finch” family (Ploceidae)–an Old World, non-native, Calcarius), juncos (genus Junco), and Lark Bunting (genus exotic introduction into the United States–and is therefore not Calamospiza) – all of which are technically sparrows. Emberizidae included within this group of native North American sparrows. is a large family, containing well over 300 species worldwide, 50 of which occur in the United States on a regular basis and 33 of Due to their secretive habits and distressingly similar cryptic which have been recorded for Louisiana. color patterns, sparrows are often overlooked or ignored by most people, including neophyte birders. Through an Of Louisiana’s 33 recorded sparrows, only seven species breed outstanding series of submitted photographs, many executed here: Eastern Towhee, Bachman’s Sparrow, Chipping Sparrow, by local Louisiana birders, and a discussion generated from a Field Sparrow, Lark Sparrow, Grasshopper Sparrow, and Seaside number of excellent resources, it is hoped that this publication Sparrow. Fourteen species migrate through and/or overwinter will shed well-deserved light upon Louisiana’s substantial Greg Lavaty, Photographer (Savannah Sparrow) here on a regular basis: Clay-colored Sparrow, Vesper Sparrow, sparrow community. Greg Lavaty, Photographer (Field Sparrow) “Twelve additional species have been recorded here on rare/irregular occasions.” David Cagnolatti, Photographer Gerrit Vyn, Photographer (Lincoln’s Sparrow) (Song Sparrow) Greg Lavaty, Photographer David Cagnolatti, Photographer Greg Lavaty, Photographer (McCown’s Longspur) (American Tree Sparrow) (Seaside Sparrow) Sparrows in Louisiana The majority of New World sparrow fields. Hedgerows in Louisiana are in harvested agricultural fields, pastures, months, Swamp Sparrows are sure to be variety of bird life, particularly during the species have adapted to lives spent commonly populated with small trees and short-mowed fields, including those abundant in both of these habitat types, spring, fall and winter months, including in grassy and/or brushy habitats, of such as rough-leaf dogwood, elderberry, around airports. often along with the very secretive and the uncommon but regularly occurring which there is no shortage in Louisiana. and prickly ash, rising just above dense cryptic Sedge Wren and other grassland Grasshopper and Clay-colored sparrows. Woodlands, brushlands, woodland edges, colonial shrub thickets of blackberry, Our native Lark Sparrow is also fond sparrows such as the beautiful Le Conte’s agricultural fields and hedgerows, fallow dewberry, American beautyberry, Japanese of flat, open expanses of pastures and Sparrow, albeit in far fewer numbers than Chipping Sparrows and Dark-eyed Juncos fields, woody/grassy water edges, “pocket” honeysuckle, and other shrubs and vines. harvested fields, especially those adjacent that of the Swamp Sparrow. forage in very short vegetation or bare meadows and prairies, and marshes are all White-crowned Sparrows are also dwellers to woodland edges. Because of its larger ground habitats, almost always along in good supply in our state–and so are the of dense shrub thickets, and are often size, and often solitary winter nature, Marsh habitats provide homes for woodland edges, where foraging groups sparrows that fill them at different times encountered in thickly overgrown this species is sometimes overlooked several species, including our native flush up at characteristically steep angles each year. Consider that nearly half (23 fence rows. by field observers around the much Seaside Sparrow, which is most often into nearby canopy trees when disturbed. of 50) of native U.S./Canadian sparrow larger numbers of Savannah and other found in salt-marsh habitats nearest to Both “Chippies” and Dark-eyed Juncos are species either breed, overwinter, or A substantial number of Louisiana grassland sparrows. the Gulf of Mexico. The overwintering also popular backyard seed-feeder birds. otherwise spend varying amounts of time sparrows are grassland dwellers. Most Nelson’s Sparrow seems most attracted Only a few sparrow species live in closed- in Louisiana on an annual basis. common and ubiquitous to freshwater cattail during the winter months “The majority of New World sparrow species have marsh pockets, including canopied forests in our state. The Eastern Field Sparrows and Fox Sparrows are is the Savannah Sparrow, those embedded within Towhee nests exclusively under mature dedicated brushland specialists, secreting which readily occupies adapted to lives spent in grassy and/or brushy intermediate and even forest canopies, especially those possessing themselves in very young, open-canopied taller native and non-native salt-marshes within our dense understories of shrub thickets. The forest habitats and also in older, climax- grassy edges of agricultural habitats, of which there is no shortage in Louisiana.” coastal zone. habitat of Bachman’s Sparrow, another type shrub-scrub habitats. Such habitats fields and roadsides. Vesper year-round resident species here in include “old fields” of varying ages, Sparrows are often found near Savannah Overwintering Swamp Sparrows, often Brush piles, comprised of bulldozed trees Louisiana, is almost completely limited pineland cutovers, back-beach thorn-scrub Sparrows but prefer to occupy adjacent found along the edges of hedgerows and and often overgrown with blackberry, to the thin, shrubby understory scattered along the coast, and other natural settings areas of close-cropped grasses and very brushlands, seem also fond of foraging honeysuckle and other thicket-forming beneath mature pine forests, especially that include large expanses of dense shrub short agricultural stubble, such as pastures, in pure, 3-foot tall stands of broomsedge, shrubs and vines, have proven to be the longleaf pine savannahs of the Florida and sapling tree thickets. and harvested fields. The harvested cotton a native grass species possessing fluffy, excellent places to search for some of our parishes and west-central Louisiana. fields of central and northern Louisiana, rust-colored seed heads during the winter rarer sparrows, including Harris’s Sparrow, Overwintering Henslow’s Sparrows Similarly, overwintering Song, Lincoln’s, for example, are excellent locales in months that grows commonly throughout Golden-crowned Sparrow, Green-tailed appreciate the thick, short-grass forest and White-crowned sparrows appreciate which to look for Vesper Sparrows. When most of Louisiana. Swamp Sparrows are Towhee, as well as other rarities such floors of these same pineland savannahs, dense, brushy conditions and seem disturbed, both of these species flush to the also attracted to dense 2-foot tall expanses as Bewick’s Wren and Sage Thrasher. particularly the wetter locations. especially attracted to the more narrow, nearest woody vegetation (trees or brush) of harvested rice. During the winter Another interesting setting for uncommon The White-throated Sparrow, one of the linear hedgerows where they might momentarily sparrows includes the modified most abundant of our winter-visiting bordering intermingle. thorn-scrub thickets of agricultural huisache acacia along the back- sparrow species, also prefers the shady, All four of the longspur species beaches of our coastal parishes.