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Grassland Sparrow | Ammodramus humeralis
Graslandgors | Sabanero rayado | Tico-tico-do-campo
The Grassland Sparrow is a small, grey-brown sparrow of open savannas and pastures in the lowlands of South America. The male sings a high, buzzy song from a grass tussock, post or small shrub. In the guide area it is the Ammodramus of the natural grasslands of the Llanos and the Beni.
Voice
A high, thin song of two or three clear notes followed by a buzzy trill, roughly tsee tsee tsrrrrrr, often repeated for long periods. The call is a short tsik.
Recording: Marcos E. Sosa — CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 · xeno-canto
Identification
12–13 cm, with a pointed bill and a fairly long, narrow tail. The head and side of the neck are grey, with a yellow spot in front of the eye and a pale eye-ring; the crown is finely streaked brown. The upperparts are grey, streaked rufous and black. There is yellow at the bend of the wing. The underparts are pale grey, with a white throat and belly and buff flanks. The sexes are alike. Juveniles are browner, with a finely streaked breast and less yellow near the eye.
Confusion species
Grasshopper Sparrow Ammodramus savannarum has a buff face and breast, a pale central crown stripe and a shorter tail; in the guide area it lives only in south-western Colombia. Yellow-browed Sparrow Ammodramus aurifrons is plainer grey-brown, with much more yellow on the face and a less streaked back, and lives mainly in pastures and along rivers in Amazonia. Wedge-tailed Grass Finch Emberizoides herbicola is much larger, with a long, pointed tail.
Habitat
Natural grassland, savanna with scattered shrubs and trees, dry pasture and grassy marsh edges, mainly in the lowlands up to about 1000 m. It feeds on the ground among the grass on seeds and insects. The nest is a cup of grass on or just above the ground, hidden in a grass tussock.
Where the bird is most at home, classified by the vegetation units of the Andes and the west coast.
Range and movements
In Colombia in the Llanos east of the Andes and in the Caribbean lowlands of the north. In Peru only in the south-east, on the savannas of the Pampas del Heath in Madre de Dios. In Bolivia widespread on the savannas of the Beni and in the lowlands of Santa Cruz. Absent from Ecuador and the Galápagos. Outside the guide area in Venezuela, the Guianas and much of Brazil, Paraguay, Uruguay and northern Argentina.
- Resident
- dark = core range, pale = thinly spread
How and when to look
Drive or walk along savannas and pastures in the early morning and watch for singing birds on tussocks and fence posts. In the Llanos and the Beni the species is regularly heard along roads through open grassland.
Conservation status
Least Concern. The species tolerates grazed grassland, but disappears where savannas are converted to cropland or tree plantations.
Scientific name
Ammodramus humeralis | (Bosc, 1792)
Bosc described the species in 1792 as Tanagra humeralis; because it was later moved to another genus, the author and year stand in brackets. The genus Ammodramus was introduced in 1827 by Swainson. The genus name comes from Greek ammos, 'sand', and dromos, 'runner': 'sand-runner'. The species name comes from Latin humerus, 'shoulder': 'of the shoulder', after the yellow bend of the wing. The specimen the first description was based on came from Cayenne, French Guiana.