Animal Diversity Web

Ge­o­graphic Range

Sage spar­rows (Am­phispiza belli) are most com­monly found in the Pa­cific re­gion of the United States. The ma­jor­ity of their pop­u­la­tion lives in the south cen­tral re­gion of San Diego County dur­ing the sum­mer. Their breed­ing range in­cludes the north­ern Campo Plateau, the south-fac­ing La­guna Moun­tains, Otay, McGinty, Sycuan, Vie­jas, Guatay, Palo­mar [moun­tains], Rancita, and Dameron/Oak Grove val­leys. The win­ter range of sage spar­rows con­sists of the Tor­rey Pines State Re­serve, east Carls­bad Agua Hedionda Creek, and north coastal San Diego County. Their mi­gra­tional range ex­tends through­out Fall­brook, Clark Dry Lake, and San Diego County (Unitt, 2012). (Unitt, 2012)

• Biogeographic Regions
• atlantic ocean
  • native

Habi­tat

Sage spar­rows are found in dense chap­ar­ral re­gions, typ­i­cally where chamise is abun­dant. The lack of leaf lit­ter in these areas al­lows them to run freely on the ground. Their habi­tats can also be com­prised of open areas filled with cre­osote and salt­bush. Such is the case in their win­ter habi­tats, which are typ­i­cally val­leys, sinks, or sandy washes, with di­verse shrub va­ri­eties (Dunn et al., 2017). Sage spar­rows oc­cupy the shrubs lo­cated in chap­ar­ral and sage­brush habi­tats. These habi­tats are threat­ened by fires as well as human in­ter­fer­ence, such as agri­cul­tural con­ver­sion and ur­ban­iza­tion (Mar­tin and Carl­son, 1998). Ad­di­tion­ally, sage spar­rows have been known to oc­cupy arid shrub-steppe habi­tat com­posed of var­i­ous shrubs and grasses. Sage spar­row habi­tats can be com­posed of big sage­brush, salt­bush, green rab­bit­bush, gray rab­bit­bush, grease­wood, blue­grass, wheat­grass, fes­cue, and brome. The pres­ence of these plants - sage­brush par­tic­u­larly - in a chap­ar­ral habi­tat has been cor­re­lated with the pres­ence of large pop­u­la­tions of sage spar­rows (Roten­berry and Knick, 1999). This is be­cause such kinds of shrubs serve as im­por­tant sage spar­row nest­ing sites (Turner, 2009). (Dunn, et al., 2017; Mar­tin and Carl­son, 1998; Roten­berry and Knick, 1999; Turner, 2009)

• Habitat Regions
• temperate

• Terrestrial Biomes
• chaparral
• scrub forest

• Other Habitat Features
• agricultural

• Range elevation

  2,000 to 2,100 m

  to ft

• Average elevation

  2,050 m

  ft

• Range depth

  1,000 to 2,000 m

  to ft

• Average depth

  1,500 m

  ft

Phys­i­cal De­scrip­tion

Sage spar­rows are typ­i­cally small, dark in color, and oc­cupy chamise chap­ar­ral and coastal sage scrub. This dif­fer­en­ti­ates them from other types of spar­rows, which are more likely to be larger in size, have paler col­oration, and oc­cupy desert habi­tats (Ci­cero and Koo, 2012). Sage spar­rows have dark-col­ored streaks on their flanks. Their dark col­oration helps them re­main hid­den from preda­tors in the shrubs where they re­side (Chase et al., 2000). Their beaks are rounded as well as pointed to as­sist in eat­ing. They have white stripes around their eyes and outer tail feath­ers, though their tails are pri­mar­ily gray-black with al­most no white show­ing. Their breasts are white, with a sin­gle, cen­tral dark spot. Their crowns are pre­dom­i­nantly black. Adult sage spar­rows are 12 to 15 cm in length and weigh 15 to 22 grams (Dunn et al., 2017). Adult males and fe­males are quite sim­i­lar look­ing. They do not dis­play no­tice­able ex­am­ples of sex­ual di­mor­phism and both sexes ex­hibit large, solid, black-col­ored throat stripes (Mar­tin and Carl­son, 1998). (Chase, et al., 2000; Ci­cero and Koo, 2012; Dunn, et al., 2017; Mar­tin and Carl­son, 1998)

• Other Physical Features
• endothermic
• bilateral symmetry

• Sexual Dimorphism
• sexes alike

• Range mass

  15 to 22 g

  0.53 to 0.78 oz

• Range length

  12 to 15 cm

  4.72 to 5.91 in

• Range wingspan

  18 to 24 cm

  7.09 to 9.45 in

• Range basal metabolic rate

  2 to 3 cm3.O2/g/hr

Re­pro­duc­tion

Sage spar­rows are dis­tinct from many spar­rows in that they are monog­a­mous and each pair of birds pick their nest sites to­gether. Fe­male sage spar­rows con­struct nests using coarse grass and twigs on the out­side, and fine grass, thin bark, and feath­ers on the in­side. Male sage spar­rows sing on nearby perches and watch over their mates as they build nests.

• Mating System
• monogamous

Sage spar­rows breed pre­dom­i­nantly in sage­brush and chap­ar­ral en­vi­ron­ments in the Pa­cific re­gion of the United States. Their nests are typ­i­cally con­structed in or under shrubs and dense, tall plants. In south­ern Cal­i­for­nia, sage spar­rows begin breed­ing dur­ing early spring. The exact dates de­pend on the lat­i­tude and el­e­va­tion of their nest­ing sites. Sage spar­rows de­part for win­ter mi­gra­tion in mid-to-late Sep­tem­ber, after breed­ing takes place (Roten­berry and Wiens, 1989).

Sage spar­rows se­lect nest sites based on the level of veg­e­ta­tion pre­sent. It was found that sage spar­rows nest­ing in areas with high lev­els of veg­e­ta­tion yielded greater re­pro­duc­tive suc­cess than those in areas with low lev­els of veg­e­ta­tion. The re­pro­duc­tive suc­cess of a nest­ing site was mea­sured based on the num­ber of fledg­lings from that site (Mis­en­hal­ter and Roten­berry, 2000). The amount of rain­fall and pre­da­tion also have sig­nif­i­cant im­pacts on re­pro­duc­tive suc­cess. The sage­brush en­vi­ron­ments that ex­pe­ri­enced in­creased amounts of pre­cip­i­ta­tion had greater re­pro­duc­tive suc­cess than those with de­creased amounts of pre­cip­i­ta­tion, since in­creased amounts of pre­cip­i­ta­tion are cor­re­lated with high lev­els of veg­e­ta­tion growth. The ef­fect of pre­da­tion on nest­ing suc­cess de­pends on the type of preda­tor as well as the in­ten­sity of pre­da­tion that oc­curs in the given en­vi­ron­ment. Pre­da­tion has been ob­served in greater quan­ti­ties in nest­ing en­vi­ron­ments with low veg­e­ta­tion lev­els in com­par­i­son to high veg­e­ta­tion lev­els (Roten­berry and Wiens, 1989).

Sage spar­rows have 1 to 3 broods dur­ing the early spring breed­ing sea­son, with clutch sizes of 1 to 4 eggs. Their eggs are 1.8 to 2.0 cm in length and are bluish white or pale blue in color, with black or brown speck­les. The in­cu­ba­tion pe­riod of sage spar­rows is 10 to 16 days and the nest­ing pe­riod is 9 to 10 days (Hans­ley and Beau­vais, 2004). (Hans­ley and Beau­vais, 2004; Mis­en­hel­ter and Roten­berry, 2000; Roten­berry and Wiens, 1989)

• Key Reproductive Features
• iteroparous
• seasonal breeding
• gonochoric/gonochoristic/dioecious (sexes separate)
• sexual
• fertilization
• oviparous

• Breeding interval

  sage sparrow only breed once during the early spring

• Breeding season

  beginning of February to the end of March

• Range eggs per season

  1 to 4

• Average eggs per season

  2

• Range time to hatching

  10 to 17 days

• Average time to hatching

  13 days

• Range fledging age

  1 to 2 weeks

• Range time to independence

  3 to 5 weeks

• Range age at sexual or reproductive maturity (female)

  8 to 9 months

• Average age at sexual or reproductive maturity (female)

  10 months

• Range age at sexual or reproductive maturity (male)

  8 to 9 months

• Average age at sexual or reproductive maturity (male)

  10 months

• Parental Investment
• male parental care
• female parental care
• pre-hatching/birth
  • provisioning
    • female
  • protecting
    • male
• pre-weaning/fledging
  • provisioning
    • female
  • protecting
    • male
• pre-independence
  • provisioning
    • female
  • protecting
    • male
• extended period of juvenile learning

Lifes­pan/Longevity

The lifes­pan of sage spar­rows is about 2 years for fe­males and 3 years for males. Fac­tors that im­pact their lifes­pans in­clude dis­ease, human in­ter­fer­ence, and pre­da­tion. Adult birds are par­a­sitized by chew­ing lice, philopterid lice, and trom­bi­culid mites. A small por­tion of adult sage spar­rows are also in­fected by avian pox. Ad­di­tion­ally, nestlings are par­a­sitized by bot­fly lar­vae and broods are par­a­sitized by flesh flies (Mar­tin and Carl­son, 1998). The re­duc­tion of veg­e­ta­tion due to the in­tro­duc­tion of graz­ing an­i­mals by hu­mans has a sig­nif­i­cant im­pact on the lifes­pan of sage spar­rows. The re­pro­duc­tive suc­cess of sage spar­rows is also re­liant on high lev­els of veg­e­ta­tion in nest­ing areas, and is there­fore im­pacted by graz­ing an­i­mals as well. In ad­di­tion, the pres­ence of preda­tors can af­fect the lifes­pan of sage spar­rows. Preda­tors like Townsend’s ground squir­rels (Urocitel­lus townsendii), are the pri­mary cause of mor­tal­ity of nestlings. There­fore, such preda­tors re­duce the re­pro­duc­tive suc­cess of sage spar­rows (Hans­ley and Beau­vais, 2004). (Hans­ley and Beau­vais, 2004; Mar­tin and Carl­son, 1998)

• Range lifespan
  Status: wild

  2 to 5 years

• Range lifespan
  Status: captivity

  2 to 5 years

• Typical lifespan
  Status: wild

  2 to 5 years

• Typical lifespan
  Status: captivity

  2 to 5 years

Be­hav­ior

Sage spar­rows for­age for food by walk­ing or hop­ping on the ground in areas with dense veg­e­ta­tion. They have also been known to run from shrub to shrub in open areas as a means of pro­tec­tion. Though they are more likely to run away than fly away when alarmed, sage spar­rows are more likely to fly away in the breed­ing or win­ter sea­sons. Sage spar­row flights are smooth over long dis­tances and choppy over short dis­tances (Mar­tin and Carl­son, 1998).

Sage spar­rows have been ob­served to chase other mem­bers of the same sex - males chase males and fe­males chase fe­males. While this is gen­er­ally viewed as non­threat­en­ing, male sage spar­rows have also en­gaged in ter­ri­to­r­ial be­hav­iors that are more ag­gres­sive in na­ture. All males pos­sess breed­ing ter­ri­tory, which usu­ally does not over­lap with oth­ers but has the po­ten­tial to ex­pe­ri­ence changes on a daily basis. Male sage spar­rows de­fend their ter­ri­to­ries from oth­ers by tak­ing part in vi­sual dis­plays of dom­i­nance or fight­ing (Rich, 1980). While mat­ing, sage spar­rows form pair bonds. Males will sing for fe­males while fe­males build nests, and pairs re­main to­gether for the course of a year. Male sage spar­row songs are used dur­ing the mat­ing sea­son and vary based on the ge­o­graphic ter­ri­tory. When pop­u­la­tions of sage spar­rows oc­cupy nearby ge­o­graphic ter­ri­to­ries, it is likely that there will be major sim­i­lar­i­ties in their songs, with minor dif­fer­ences that are only ev­i­dent at the ends of songs (Rich, 1981). (Mar­tin and Carl­son, 1998; Rich, 1980; Rich, 1981)

• Key Behaviors
• terricolous
• diurnal
• motile
• sedentary

• Range territory size

  0.75 to 5.7 m^2

• Average territory size

  3.23 m^2

Home Range

Exact home ranges of sage spar­rows are not re­ported. How­ever, they are mi­gra­to­r­ial, cov­er­ing a large range of Baja Cal­i­for­nia and south­ern Cal­i­for­nia in the U.S.

Com­mu­ni­ca­tion and Per­cep­tion

Sage spar­rows com­mu­ni­cate through a va­ri­ety of song types. These song types in­clude soft, high-pitched, bell-like songs that lasts a few sec­onds, mul­ti­ple drawn out chirp­ing sounds of vary­ing fre­quen­cies, and low songs that main­tain a sin­gu­lar pitch (Hans­ley and Beau­vais, 2004). The most com­mon sage spar­row song con­sists of an un­fin­ished se­ries of elon­gated notes that are rapid and muf­fled. Males use this type of song as a means of main­tain­ing con­tact with fe­males, since fe­males do not have the abil­ity to sing.

Males that have formed a mat­ing pair sing less fre­quently than un­paired males. Males sing through­out the en­tire breed­ing sea­son, but after young are fledged the fre­quency of their singing de­creases. They typ­i­cally sing sim­plis­tic songs at low fre­quen­cies from the tops of tall shrubs, where sounds carry far­ther (Hans­ley and Beau­vais, 2004). Re­searchers found that the height of the shrubs im­pacts song qual­ity by de­creas­ing its clar­ity, scat­ter­ing the sound, and caus­ing wind in­ter­fer­ence (Kris­tan et al., 2003).

There is greater vari­a­tion in sage spar­row songs be­tween dif­fer­ent pop­u­la­tions in com­par­i­son to the vari­a­tion within a sin­gle pop­u­la­tion. It was found that these dif­fer­ent pop­u­la­tions had greater song vari­a­tion based on the song el­e­ments, song pat­terns, and the amount of birds that were pre­sent in the given pop­u­la­tion (Wiens, 1982). (Hans­ley and Beau­vais, 2004; Kris­tan III, et al., 2003; Wiens, 1982)

• Communication Channels
• acoustic

• Perception Channels
• visual
• tactile
• acoustic
• chemical

Food Habits

The diet of sage spar­rows varies de­pend­ing on the sea­son. Their diet dur­ing breed­ing sea­son is de­scribed as that of a ground for­ag­ing om­ni­vore who feeds on lar­val in­sects, adult in­sects, seeds, small fruits, plant ma­te­r­ial, spi­ders, and suc­cu­lent veg­e­ta­tion. Their diet dur­ing non-breed­ing sea­son (in early spring, fall, and win­ter months) can be de­scribed as that of a ground pick­ing grani­vore, feed­ing on in­sects, plant ma­te­r­ial, and small seeds. Sage spar­rows are able to for­age and dig for the var­i­ous types of food that make up their sea­sonal diets (Mar­tin and Carl­son, 1998).

Sage spar­rows also ac­quire water from the con­sump­tion of in­sects and veg­e­ta­tion. As nestlings, fledg­lings, and adults, sage spar­rows are pri­mar­ily in­sec­tiv­o­rous. As nestlings and fledg­lings, sage spar­rows favor eat­ing arthro­pods such as grasshop­pers or spi­ders, which are pro­vided to them by their par­ents (Meents et al., 1982). (Mar­tin and Carl­son, 1998; Meents, et al., 1982)

• Primary Diet
• carnivore
  • insectivore
  • eats non-insect arthropods
• herbivore
  • folivore
  • frugivore
  • granivore
• omnivore

• Animal Foods
• insects
• terrestrial non-insect arthropods

• Plant Foods
• leaves
• seeds, grains, and nuts
• fruit

• Foraging Behavior
• stores or caches food

Pre­da­tion

Sage spar­rows are tar­geted by a va­ri­ety of preda­tors dur­ing the dif­fer­ent stages of their lives. Eggs and young are the tar­geted prey of Townsend’s ground squir­rels (Urocitel­lus townsendii). Ad­di­tion­ally, com­mon ravens (Corvus corax) has been known to prey upon sage spar­row nests when nestlings are pre­sent. Other nest preda­tors of sage spar­rows in­clude great horned owls (Bubo vir­gini­anus), log­ger­head shrikes (La­nius lu­dovi­cianus), mer­lins (Falco colum­bar­ius), and greater road­run­ners (Geo­coc­cyx cal­i­for­ni­anus) (Mar­tin and Carl­son, 1998). A por­tion of nest-tend­ing adults and un­suc­cess­ful nests have also been lost as a re­sult of dis­ease or par­a­sitism. Brown-headed cow­birds (Molothrus ater) are a well-known par­a­site of sage spar­row nests dur­ing their breed­ing sea­son. Ad­di­tion­ally, dis­eases caused by bot­flies, chew­ing lice, flesh flies, fly lar­vae, and mites have the po­ten­tial to af­fect the bod­ies of sage spar­rows (Hans­ley and Beau­vais, 2004). (Hans­ley and Beau­vais, 2004; Mar­tin and Carl­son, 1998)

• Anti-predator Adaptations
• cryptic

• Known Predators

  • Townsend’s ground squirrels (Urocitellus townsendii), common raven (Corvus corax), great horned owls (Bubo virginianus) , loggerhead shrikes (Lanius ludovicianus), merlins (Falco columbarius), greater roadrunners (Geococcyx californianus) , and brown-headed cowbirds (Molothrus ater)

Ecosys­tem Roles

Sage spar­rows live in ecosys­tems that often ex­pe­ri­ence in­ter­fer­ence in the form of habi­tat degra­da­tion and human in­ter­fer­ence, such as the in­tro­duc­tion of graz­ing an­i­mals. Their habi­tats are pri­mar­ily com­posed of shrubs and shrub-like plants that are in dan­ger of being de­stroyed by chem­i­cal or me­chan­i­cal means. This habi­tat degra­da­tion takes place in order to pro­vide the proper land­scape to en­sure the growth of grasses that pro­vide nu­tri­ents for graz­ing an­i­mals. This habi­tat degra­da­tion can se­verely de­crease the dis­tri­b­u­tion of sage spar­rows (Mar­tin and Carl­son, 1998). Human ex­pan­sion also sig­nif­i­cantly im­pacts the ecosys­tems of sage spar­rows. This is based on the knowl­edge that the prox­im­ity of hu­mans to sage spar­row in­creases their chances of being preyed upon by feral cats. Sage spar­rows have ex­pe­ri­enced se­ri­ous lev­els of frag­men­ta­tion due to the in­tro­duc­tion of sec­ondary pre­da­tion on top of the ex­ist­ing pre­da­tion ef­forts and brood par­a­sitism.

The in­tro­duc­tion of graz­ing an­i­mals also neg­a­tively af­fects sage spar­row habi­tat and can cause se­ri­ous pop­u­la­tion de­creases in chap­ar­ral or sage­brush en­vi­ron­ments. Do­mes­tic goats (Capra ae­ga­grus hir­cus) and pigs (Sus scrofa do­mes­ti­cus) are two im­por­tant ex­am­ples of graz­ing an­i­mals that take part in such ecosys­tem de­struc­tion. How­ever, threat­ened habi­tats and ecosys­tem as a whole can be re­cov­ered if graz­ing an­i­mals are re­moved (Mar­tin and Carl­son, 1998). (Mar­tin and Carl­son, 1998)

• Ecosystem Impact
• creates habitat

Eco­nomic Im­por­tance for Hu­mans: Pos­i­tive

Sage spar­rows are of eco­nomic im­por­tance to peo­ple be­cause of their abil­ity to in­habit var­i­ous types of chap­ar­ral and sage­brush en­vi­ron­ments. They have the abil­ity to blend into sur­round­ing en­vi­ron­ments that are in close prox­im­ity to hu­mans and in re­mote re­gions due to their muted col­oration. Hu­mans also study these birds in order to un­der­stand spe­cific prob­lems pre­sented in the field of bi­ol­ogy, such as avian evo­lu­tion and meth­ods that can be used to pre­vent pop­u­la­tion de­creases in bird species. Sage spar­rows are non-in­va­sive and are not known to ag­gres­sively com­pete against other bird species for food. How­ever, they do ex­hibit some ag­gres­sive be­hav­ior when in­volved in in­traspe­cific com­pe­ti­tion. Sage spar­rows do not play a role in the con­sump­tion of agri­cul­tural seeds that are pro­duced by farm fields. They also do not com­mu­ni­cate loudly or fre­quently, as com­mu­ni­ca­tion is typ­i­cally lim­ited to breed­ing sea­son. When they do com­mu­ni­cate, it is not known to in­con­ve­nience hu­mans (Hans­ley and Beau­vais, 2004). (Hans­ley and Beau­vais, 2004)

• Positive Impacts
• research and education

Eco­nomic Im­por­tance for Hu­mans: Neg­a­tive

Sage spar­rows are not known to be as­so­ci­ated with neg­a­tive eco­nomic im­pacts.

Con­ser­va­tion Sta­tus

Sage spar­rows are con­sid­ered to be a species of spe­cial con­cern in the state of Cal­i­for­nia. This clas­si­fi­ca­tion is given to species de­clin­ing in pop­u­la­tion size. The West­ern Work­ing Group of Part­ners in Flight are ac­tive in their de­vel­op­ment of strate­gies re­gard­ing con­ser­va­tion man­age­ment of the sage spar­row pop­u­la­tions. Some of these strate­gies in­clude pro­tect­ing chap­ar­ral or sage­brush habi­tats from over­graz­ing, lim­it­ing the degra­da­tion of such areas, and pri­or­i­tiz­ing ah­bi­tats that will en­sure the growth of the sage spar­row pop­u­la­tions (Mar­tin and Carl­son, 1998). Sage spar­rows are be­com­ing a species of major con­cern, based on the de­clin­ing abun­dance and pop­u­la­tion dis­tri­b­u­tion ob­served by the North Amer­i­can Breed­ing Bird Sur­vey (BBS). The pri­mary causes of their de­clin­ing pop­u­la­tions in­clude the lim­ited amount and qual­ity of in­tact breed­ing habi­tat. How­ever, not all gov­ern­ment or­ga­ni­za­tions agree that sage spar­rows are a species of con­cern in Cal­i­for­nia. The USDI Fish and Wildlife Ser­vice main­tains that sage spar­rows are not a species of con­ser­va­tion con­cern in Cal­i­for­nia, but the USDI Bu­reau of Land Man­age­ment states that they are a sen­si­tive species. The USDA For­est Ser­vice also iden­ti­fies sage spar­rows as a sen­si­tive species. In ad­di­tion, the IUCN Red List rec­og­nizes sage spar­rows as a pri­or­ity avian species that needs to be con­served. They also note that there is con­cern that the species pop­u­la­tion is de­clin­ing at a rapid rate (Hans­ley and Beau­vais, 2004). (Hans­ley and Beau­vais, 2004; Mar­tin and Carl­son, 1998)

• IUCN Red List

  Least Concern

• US Migratory Bird Act

  No special status

• US Federal List

  No special status

• CITES

  No special status

• State of Michigan List

  No special status

Con­trib­u­tors

Nikolija Jojic (au­thor), Cal­i­for­nia State Uni­ver­sity, San Mar­cos, Tracey Brown (ed­i­tor), Cal­i­for­nia State Uni­ver­sity, San Mar­cos, Galen Bur­rell (ed­i­tor), Spe­cial Pro­jects.

Ref­er­ences

Chase, M., W. Kris­tan III, A. Lyman, M. Price, J. Roten­berry. 2000. Sin­gle species as in­di­ca­tors of species rich­ness and com­po­si­tion in Cal­i­for­nia coastal sage scrub birds and small mam­mals. Con­ser­va­tion Bi­ol­ogy, 14(2): 474-487.

Ci­cero, C., M. Koo. 2012. The role of niche di­ver­gence and phe­no­typic adap­ta­tion in pro­mot­ing lin­eage di­ver­si­fi­ca­tion in the Sage Spar­row (Artemi­siospiza belli, Aves: Em­ber­izidae). Bi­o­log­i­cal Jour­nal of the Lin­nean So­ci­ety, 107(2): 332-354.

Dunn, J., J. Alder­fer, P. Lehman. 2017. Na­tional Ge­o­graphic field guide to the birds of North Amer­ica. Wash­ing­ton, D.C.: Na­tional Ge­o­graphic.

Hans­ley, P., G. Beau­vais. 2004. Species as­sess­ment for sage spar­row (Am­phispiza belli) in Wyoming. Cheyenne, Wyoming, USA: United States De­part­ment of the In­te­rior, Bu­reau of Land Man­age­ment, Wyoming State Of­fice.

Kris­tan III, W., A. Lynam, M. Price, J. Roten­berry. 2003. Al­ter­na­tive causes of edge‐abun­dance re­la­tion­ships in birds and small mam­mals of Cal­i­for­nia coastal sage scrub. Ecol­ogy, 26(1): 29-44.

Mar­tin, J., B. Carl­son. 1998. "Bell’s Spar­row (Artemi­siospiza belli), ver­sion 2.0. In The Birds of North Amer­ica (A.F. Poole, Ed­i­tor)" (On-line). Ac­cessed April 20, 2020 at https://​birdsna.​org/​Species-Account/​bna/​species/​belspa2.

Meents, J., B. An­der­son, R. Ohmart. 1982. Veg­e­ta­tion re­la­tion­ships and food of Sage Spar­rows win­ter­ing in honey mesquite habi­tat. The Wil­son Bul­letin, n/a: 129-138.

Mis­en­hel­ter, M., J. Roten­berry. 2000.

Choices and con­se­quences of habi­tat oc­cu­pancy and nest site se­lec­tion in Sage Spar­rows

Rich, T. 1981. Mi­cro­geo­graphic vari­a­tion in the song of the sage spar­row. The Con­dor, 83(2): 113-119.

Rich, T. 1980. Ter­ri­to­r­ial be­hav­ior of the Sage Spar­row: spa­tial and ran­dom as­pects. The Wil­son Bul­letin, n/a: 425-438.

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