The black-throated sparrow (''Amphispiza bilineata'') is a small
New World sparrow primarily found in the southwestern United States and
Mexico
Mexico, officially the United Mexican States, is a country in North America. It is the northernmost country in Latin America, and borders the United States to the north, and Guatemala and Belize to the southeast; while having maritime boundar ...
. It is the only member of the genus ''Amphispiza''; the
five-striped sparrow, formerly also classified in ''Amphispiza'', is now thought to be in the monotypic genus ''
Amphispizopsis''.
It is sometimes referred to as the desert sparrow, due to its preferred habitat of arid desert hillsides and scrub. This name usually refers to the
desert sparrow of Africa and Asia.
Description
Measurements:
* Length:
* Weight:
* Wingspan:
The black-throated sparrow is pale gray above, with a distinctive black and white head pattern. Immature birds are similar but lack a black throat. Its call is high and bell-like, and its song is a fairly simple, mechanical
tinkling. It feeds primarily on insects and seeds, and travels in small groups, though larger groups may accumulate around sources of water in the desert.
It has a loose nest of grass twigs and plant fibers carefully hidden in brush above the ground. Black-throated sparrows are habitat-generalist species, using a wide range of plants as habitats to build their nests in. However, they find less breeding success in lower-climate habitats like mesquite, perhaps due to human-caused climate change.
[Hargrove, L., & Rotenberry, J. T. (2011). Breeding success at the range margin of a desert species: implications for a climate-induced elevational shift. Oikos, 120(10), 1568–1576. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1600-0706.2011.19284.x. Retrieved 2 November 2024 ] Three or four white or pale blue eggs are laid.
Diet
The black-throated sparrow's diet consists of bugs during the
mating season
Seasonal breeders are animal species that successfully mate only during certain times of the year. These times of year allow for the optimization of survival of young due to factors such as ambient temperature, food and water availability, and ch ...
and seeds during the non-breeding season. They mainly forage on the ground around bushes and cacti and sometimes
glean food from leaves and twigs.
References
*
David Allen Sibley, ''The Sibley Field Guide to Birds of Western North America''.
External links
Black-throated sparrow – ''Amphispiza bilineata''– USGS Patuxent Bird Identification InfoCenter
– Cornell Lab of Ornithology
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Native birds of the Western United States
Birds of Mexico
black-throated sparrow
black-throated sparrow
American sparrows
Passerellidae