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Bird name:

Vesper Sparrow

Pooecetes gramineus

Order

PASSERIFORMES

Family

Sparrows (Emberizidae)

Code 4

VESP

Code 6

POOGRA

ITIS

179366

Breeding Location:

Grasslands

Breeding Type:

Monogamous, Solitary nester

Breeding Population:

Uncommon to fairly common

Egg Color:

Creamy white or pale green with brown markings

Number of Eggs:

2 - 6

Incubation Days:

11 - 13

Egg Incubator:

Both sexes

Nest Material:

Grasses, weed stalks, and rootlets., Lined with fine grasses and animal hair.

Migration:

Migratory

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General

Vesper Sparrow: Medium-sized, stocky sparrow with black-streaked gray-brown upperparts, white underparts, and streaked breast and sides. White face has brown cheek patch and white eye-ring. Wings are gray-brown with two pale bars and rufous shoulder patches. Tail is notched and dark with white edges. Sexes are similar.

Range and Habitat

Vesper Sparrow: Breeds from British Columbia, Ontario, and Nova Scotia south to central California, Texas, Tennessee, and western North Carolina. Spends winters north to central California, Oklahoma, New Jersey, and Long Island. Found in cultivated fields, grasslands, and fallow fields with adjacent farmed areas.

Breeding and Nesting

Vesper Sparrow: Two to six creamy white or pale green eggs with brown markings are laid in a cup of grass, weed stalks, and rootlets, built in a scraped-out ground depression, and lined with fine grass and animal hair. Incubation ranges from 11 to 13 days and is carried out by both parents.

Foraging and Feeding

Vesper Sparrow: Feeds on insects during the summer, along with spiders and other small invertebrates. Eats mostly seeds in the winter; forages on the ground.

Readily Eats

Sunflower Seed, Commercial Mixed Bird Seed

Vocalization

Vesper Sparrow: Song consists of a pair of repeated notes "here-here where-where" followed by a series of descending trills. Call is a short "hsip."

Similar Species

Vesper Sparrow: Savannah Sparrow has shorter tail, yellow behind eye, pale central crown stripe, and lacks rust-brown shoulder and eye-ring.

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Bird Call Credits: The Macaulay Library of Natural Sounds at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology. Martyn Stewart, http://www.naturesound.org, Redmond, Washington USA. The reuse or copying of bird calls in this database is strictly forbidden.

Underparts

Belly, undertail coverts, chest, flanks, and foreneck.

Upperparts

Back, rump, hindneck, wings, and crown.

Breast

The upper front part of a bird.

Face

The front part of the head consisting of the bill, eyes, cheeks and chin.

Shoulder

The short feathers overlying the median secondary coverts on the top of the wing. They are located near the back and can be seen as the “first row” of feathers on the birds wing. They are also called marginal coverts and lesser secondary coverts.

4 and 6 letter alpha codes

The four letter common name alpha code is is derived from the first two letters of the common first name and the first two letters of common last name. The six letter species name alpha code is derived from the first three letters of the scientific name (genus) and the first three letters of the scientific name (species). See (1) below for the rules used to create the codes..

Four-letter (for English common names) and six-letter (for scientific names) species alpha codes were developed by Pyle and DeSante (2003, North American Bird-Bander 28:64-79) to reflect A.O.U. taxonomy and nomenclature (A.O.U. 1998) as modified by Supplements 42 (Auk 117:847-858, 2000) and 43 (Auk 119:897-906, 2002). The list has been updated by Pyle and DeSante to reflect changes reported by the A.O.U from 2003 through 2006.

Field Guide to Birds of North America