BREEDING BIRDS: BELDING’S SAVANNAH SPARROW (Passerculus sandwichensis beldingi)

Description: This is a small, heavily-streaked sparrow with dark striping on tis breast. It has a yellow line over the eyebrow, but lacks white median line on crown. Tail is short and squared-off. Pinkish legs are browner than other streaked sparrows. Length: 4 1/2-5 3/4 inches.

Habitat: Open fields, grasslands, marshland, dunes and shores.

Diet: Grass seeds, snails and spiders.

Displays: Males court by standing while rapidly vibrating wings above back, then male takes low, slow flight on rapidly vibrating wings with head and tail raised; flight song. Females will distract predators from nest by feigning wing injury or running on ground like a mouse.

Nest: Built in a small depression of coarse vegetation and lined with fine grass and materials. Nest is usually hidden by overhanging brush.

Eggs: Greenish-blue and off-white, marked with brown and occasionally wreathed. Length: 0.8 inches.

Call: Single note of tsip. Song is a whimsical tsit-tsit-tsit, tseeee-tsaaay (last note sung at lower pitch).

Note: As natural breeding sites fall to development, Belding’s Savannah Sparrow is becoming a less-frequently observed subspecies in Orange County.

Breeding bird atlas: To report bird breeding activity in your neighborhood, or to get information on the breeding bird atlas, call Sea and Sage Audubon Society members Sylvia Gallagher, (714) 962-8990, or Nancy Kenyon, (714) 786-3160.

Note: Map is divided into 5-kilometer squares so that Audubon Society volunteers can more easily survey areas on a regular basis.

Sources: Sea and Sage Audubon Society; “The Birder’s Handbook,” Ehrlich, Dobkin and Wheye, Fireside Books (1988); “Field Guide to the Birds of North America,” National Geographic Society (1987); “Birds of Southern California: Status and Distribution,” Garrett and Dunn, Los Angeles Audubon Society (1981).