Clay-colored Sparrow
(Spizella pallida)

Overview

Summary

© Jukka Jantunen (flickr.com/photos/jukka_jantunen)
For additional photos and vocalizations, visit Dendroica. (Link opens in a new window.)

The Clay-colored Sparrow breeds in shrubby habitats, primarily in grassland ecosystems across the Prairie Provinces. Clearing of forested habitats for agriculture allowed this species to expand out of the prairies in the first half of the 1900s (Grant and Knapton 2012). It is well monitored by the Breeding Bird Survey, which shows a moderate decrease since about 1970. Canada is home to about 85% of the world's breeding population of the Clay-colored Sparrow, leading to a very high level of responsibility for the species. This species has been identified as a priority for conservation and/or stewardship in one or more Bird Conservation Region Strategies in Canada.

Designations

Population status

Population estimate

Distribution maps

• BirdLife International / NatureServe
• Breeding Bird Survey (BBS): Relative Abundance and Breeding Distribution (1993-2012)

Migration strategy, occurrence

Responsibility for conservation of world population

Conservation and management

Continued conversion of grass and shrub habitat to agriculture, intensification of agriculture and prescribed burns have negatively affected populations of Clay-colored Sparrows, but the species has also likely benefited from other actions of humans on the landscape (e.g., fire suppression on grasslands allowing proliferation of low shrub, forest clearing; Grant and Knapton 2012). The preservation of remaining grassland and low shrub habitat throughout the species' range is the main priority for conservation (Grant and Knapton 2012).

Bird conservation region strategies

Environment and Climate Change Canada and partners have developed Bird Conservation Region Strategies in each of Canada’s Bird Conservation Regions (BCRs). In these strategies, selected species are identified as priorities for one or more of the following reasons:

• conservation concerns (i.e., species vulnerable due to population size, distribution, population trend, abundance, or threats)
• stewardship responsibilities (i.e., species that typify the regional avifauna or have a large proportion of their range or population in the sub-region)
• management concerns (i.e., species that require ongoing management because of their socio-economic importance as game species, or because of their impacts on other species or habitats)
• other concerns (i.e., species deemed a priority by regional experts for other reasons than those listed above or because they are listed as species at risk or concern at the provincial level)

Select any of the sub-regions below to view the BCR strategy for additional details.

References

• Grant, Todd A. and Richard W. Knapton. 2012. Clay-colored Sparrow (Spizella pallida), The Birds of North America Online (A. Poole, Ed.). Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, New York. Grant, Todd A. and Richard W. Knapton. 2012. Clay-colored Sparrow (Spizella pallida), The Birds of North America Online (A. Poole, Ed.). Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, New York. (Link)