Henslow's sparrow

Appearance

Adults have streaked brown upperparts with a light brown breast with streaks, a white belly and a white throat. They have a pale stripe on the crown with a dark stripe on each side, an olive face and neck, rust-coloured wings and a short dark forked tail.

Distribution

Their breeding habitat is shrubby fields, often wet, in southern Canada, the northeastern United States, and the midwestern United States. The nest is a well-concealed open cup on or close to the ground in a grassy location; these birds often nest in small colonies. They migrate to marshes and open pine woods in the southeastern United States.

These birds forage on the ground, mainly eating insects and seeds. Their song is a quick ''se-lick''.

The range and numbers of this bird are decreasing, probably due to habitat loss of the grasslands that it depends on. However, it has heavily benefited from the Conservation Reserve Program formed by the United States Department of Agriculture, which has helped to stabilize its population. Following this, it was downlisted to Least Concern from Near Threatened in 2018.

The Texas population was solely known from a 105-acre brushfield near Houston and disappeared after devegetation due to industrial development in the 1980s. It was considered a distinct subspecies but is today considered to fall into the range of variation of the nominate subspecies . Likewise, the South Dakotan population formerly known as ''P. h. occidentalis'' has been synonymized with the nominate. The only remaining subspecies generally accepted are the eastern Henslow's sparrow and the western Henslow's sparrow, whose ranges are for the most part separated by the Appalachian Mountains.

Habitat

Their breeding habitat is shrubby fields, often wet, in southern Canada, the northeastern United States, and the midwestern United States. The nest is a well-concealed open cup on or close to the ground in a grassy location; these birds often nest in small colonies. They migrate to marshes and open pine woods in the southeastern United States.

These birds forage on the ground, mainly eating insects and seeds. Their song is a quick ''se-lick''.

The range and numbers of this bird are decreasing, probably due to habitat loss of the grasslands that it depends on. However, it has heavily benefited from the Conservation Reserve Program formed by the United States Department of Agriculture, which has helped to stabilize its population. Following this, it was downlisted to Least Concern from Near Threatened in 2018.

The Texas population was solely known from a 105-acre brushfield near Houston and disappeared after devegetation due to industrial development in the 1980s. It was considered a distinct subspecies but is today considered to fall into the range of variation of the nominate subspecies . Likewise, the South Dakotan population formerly known as ''P. h. occidentalis'' has been synonymized with the nominate. The only remaining subspecies generally accepted are the eastern Henslow's sparrow and the western Henslow's sparrow, whose ranges are for the most part separated by the Appalachian Mountains.