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Sharp-tailed Sparrow

Status Fairly common in summer, rare in winter. Breeds. Birds usually arrive in numbers during the first two weeks of June, but a few may appear earlier (average 31 May, earliest 6 May). It is found in summer about salt marshes, occasionally in freshwater marshes along all our coasts and sometimes well inland on tidal rivers. Last sightings are usually in October (average 26 October, latest 5 December). Stragglers have occurred on Christmas Bird Counts: at Broad Cove, Lunenburg County, in 1972, and on most Halifax East counts since 1979. A bird at Cole Harbour, Halifax County, on 4 February 1964, two there on 1 March 1981 and up to five there in January 1982 and two there on 1 March 1981 all indicate regular overwintering in small numbers.

Description Length: 12.5-15 cm. Adults: Upperparts brownish or grayish olive, the back with obscure, paler stripes; broad, bluish gray line through centre of crown; cheeks gray, margined with two broad, buff lines, one over the eye and the other below the cheek; tail feathers narrow and pointed at ends, the outer ones shorter than the central ones; breast and sides cream-coloured, sparsely and indistinctly streaked with dull gray; throat grayish white; belly white.

Breeding Nest: On the ground in tall, rank grassland that has not been plowed for several years, preferably never; small and deep, composed of soft grass, with lining of smooth fine grass, and fastened to the stems of new grass so that the base of the nest is about flush with the ground surface (rarely it is slightly elevated above the ground). There is some indication that these birds may be colonial in their nesting. Seldom is a pair seen isolated from others of its kind. I have found two nests within about 12 m of each other, and four nests in a 0.5 ha field where additional males were singing close at hand. Such group nesting may result from a shortage of suitable grassland. It has been noted repeatedly that a field growing hay for only one year does not attract them. They insist upon sites where the ground is covered with thick, dead grass of past years, perhaps because this condition provides better nest concealment. Theforegoing is based on observations made on the dykeland meadows near Wolfville but is believed applicable to other locations where this bird nests in the province.

Eggs: 4-6, sets of 4 and 5 about equally divided, 6 being unusual; pale greenish blue, speckled with various shades of light brown. Of 36 nests I have examined, 18 held four eggs, 17 held five, and 1 contained six. My earliest date for eggs is 17 June 1942, when two nests were found with complete sets of fresh eggs. Herbert Brandt and Albert Dixon Simmons found a nest at Port La Tour, Shelburne County, on 12 June 1942, which contained five fresh eggs. Brandt wrote (letter to R.W. Tufts):

"This nest was evidently an early effort for the bird in an early spring, for we carefully 'dragged' the square mile without finding further indications. About 15 pairs were observed in this wide meadow."

Range Breeds in meadows adjacent to salt marshes in James Bay, the St. Lawrence River and the Magdalen Islands, south to North Carolina; also in freshwater marshes of the prairie provinces. Winters in coastal marshes (casually in Nova Scotia) from Massachusetts to Florida and Texas.

Remarks Although this bird nests fairly commonly in many districts, even those who know the more common local birds may mistake it for a Savannah Sparrow without a second glance. The two do resemble each other and associate closely at nesting time, but a careful observer, even without the aid of binoculars, will detect the difference. This bird is smaller and has a slightly tawny appearance that the Savannah Sparrow does not, its breast is much less distinctly striped and its flight is more "buzzy." When it takes off to skim over the tall grass, its wings beat so rapidly that they appear as a blur; the wing-beats of the Savannah Sparrow are slower.

Its song is short and distinctive: it starts with a husky, lisping twitter and ends in what to me sounds like t-h-r-u-s-hlup, all sung in about a second. At the height of nesting season, the male sometimes will climb into the air at a rather sharp angle, on fluttering wings, to a height of 3-5 m and then float down on set wings, gushing with song as he drops out of sight into the long grass.

Our breeding birds belong to the subspecies Ammodramus caudacutus subvirpatus, found in northern Maine, the Maritimes and along the lower St. Lawrence River. Two birds seen by Fulton Lavender at Russell Lake, Dartmouth, in mid-October 1980 were believed to be of the prairie race A. c. nelsoni, as were individuals at Cole Harbour on 9 January 1982 and 15 January 1984 (I.A. McLaren, J. Kearney, E.L. Mills et al.). Colour slides of the last bird suggest that it could equally well be of the James Bay race, A. c. altera. Both inland subspecies, especially A. c. altera, are regular in New England, and it is possible that unusually early spring migrants belong to these populations. They can be distinguished by their much brighter, buffier breasts and heads, strong white stripes on much browner backs, and absence (or obscurity on A. c. altera) of breast streakings.