Clay-Colored Sparrow

Spizella pallida
Range Map

The Clay-Colored Sparrow breeds in brushy areas from the Great Lakes and the prairies of the northern states and north into most of central Canada. They typically spend winters from southern Texas and south into most of Mexico.

Today’s science regards the Clay-Colored Sparrow as monotypic (i.e. no subspecies).

Pair bonds last but one season, and while males return to the same territory every year, the females will find new mates each summer. Chicks leave the nest a week before they can fly and hop around under the cover of dense brush where the parents feed them. When not nesting, these birds will group into flocks, often with other sparrows.

I first met this species in Canada while driving to Alaska in 2005. I did not meet them again until 2021 in south Texas. My Texas meetings were more productive than those in Canada. In 2022, while on my way to Canada, I met more of these birds in Montana.

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15 Photos

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