Black-throated Sparrow

Amphispiza bilineataOrder: PASSERIFORMESFamily: Sparrows (Emberizidae)

General

Black-throated Sparrow: Medium-sized sparrow with gray-brown upperparts, unstreaked, white underparts, and a black bib. Head has dark gray cap and sharply contrasting white eyebrow and cheek stripe. Long, round-tipped tail is edged with white. Sexes are similar. Juvenile has streaked upper breast and lacks black bib.

Range and Habitat

Black-throated Sparrow: Breeds from northeastern California, southwestern Wyoming, and southeastern Colorado southward. Spends winters north to the desert regions of the southern U.S. Preferred habitats include deserts and scrublands.

Listen to Call

Voice Text

"queat-queat", "toodle-oodle-oodle"

Interesting Facts

The Black-throated Sparrow is also known as the Desert Sparrow, due to its preferred habitat of arid desert scrub. They can survive long periods of time without water, obtaining moisture from the seeds and insects that make up their diet.
The start of the breeding season is determined by the onset of midsummer rains in the desert, with second broods common in years with plentiful rainfall. Nests started later in the season have a greater chance of being parasitized by Bronzed and Brown-headed Cowbirds
Altered fire regimes have caused declining habitat quality throughout their range. Frequent, cool-burning fires produce the best combination of open areas and short shrubs, but fires are now both less frequent and hotter.
A group of sparrows has many collective nouns, including a "crew", "flutter", "meinie", "quarrel", and "ubiquity" of sparrows.

Author

Gary Owen Dick

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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.

Black-throated Sparrow

Black-throated Sparrow: Medium sparrow, gray-brown upperparts, white underparts, black bib. Head has dark gray cap and sharply contrasting white eyebrow and cheek stripe. Bill is black. Long, round-tipped tail is edged with white. Legs and feet are gray. Forages on the ground and in low vegetation.

● Song: "queat-queat", "toodle-oodle-oodle"

● Foraging & Feeding: Black-throated Sparrow: Feeds on seeds during winter and insects during breeding season. Also consumes grass and herbs. Gravel is sometimes ingested to aid in digestion; forages on the ground.

● Breeding & nesting: Black-throated Sparrow: Two to four white or light blue eggs are laid in a loosely built nest made of bark strips, grass, and stems, lined with wool, hair, or feathers, and built in a thorny bush. Incubation ranges from 12 to 15 days and is carried out by the female.

● Similar species: Black-throated Sparrow: Sage and Five-striped sparrows have white throats.

Flight Pattern

Short flights with rapidly beating wings.

Black-throated Sparrow Body Illustration

● Range & Habitat: Black-throated Sparrow: Breeds from northeastern California, southwestern Wyoming, and southeastern Colorado southward. Spends winters north to the desert regions of the southern U.S. Preferred habitats include deserts and scrublands.

^BreedingMonogamous, Solitary nester

^PopulationFairly common

^MigrationNorthern birds migrate

^Weight0.5 Ounces

Field Guide to Birds of North America