Glen Everett Woolfenden

“ Young Seaside Sparrows fly in an uncertain but characteristic manner when they are flushed from the grass. They dive clumsily into the grass after a short flight, making it easy to identify them as birds of the year.
The plumage of sparrows of the Genus Ammospiza serves to conceal them in their habitat. In juvenal and adult plumage, the Sharp-tailed Sparrow is a brown-backed, streaked bird, the color and pattern blending with the matted grasses (Allen, 1925:67) where the species feeds and nests. The Seaside Sparrow, as an adult, is olive-gray. ”

“ I suspect that male Sharp-tailed Sparrows do not even know where nests are. On July 18 at 7:00 a.m. I was watching a nest from a nearby blind when an unbanded male (I saw the individual sing later) appeared. As the bird foraged through the black grass, it headed directly toward the nest. When the male was almost one foot from the nest the incubating female left. She ran from the tussock and flew a short distance away to a cattail stem. From here she watched the male, which seemingly oblivious continued foraging, coming within inches of the nest. ”

“ When searching for food, Sharp-tailed Sparrows walk through the dense black grass, deftly brushing stems aside with their bill as they go. Open areas are generally traversed by rapid running. I never noticed either species hopping. They stop to investigate openings in the matted understory of grass, often sticking their heads into the holes. Many times I saw these sparrows stretch or jump to pick insects from stems. Many droppings, almost certainly those of Sharp-tailed Sparrows, were present in areas of damp, matted grass. Females, when feeding young, obtain most of the food near the nest ”

“ It is generally agreed that territorial species engage in a minimum of fighting. Song and display have been evolved to substitute for actual combat which demands a greater amount of energy. Additionally, the mere presence of an individual in an area previously established as its territory probably serves to keep birds of nearby territories away. I think that male Seaside Sparrows defend the feeding area and flyway as a part of their territory by advertisement through use of these areas. The birds at Lavallette rarely sang on the feeding grounds and I noted only a few chases originating there. ”

“ This female was seen again on August 1 more than 500 yards from her nest site on the island immediately north of the study area.
Devotion of parent passerine birds to the young typically increases with the growth of the young (Nice, 1943:245) . This may explain why the mateless female deserted its nest when the young were only two days old, whereas a mateless male continued to care for his six-day-old young. The death of one nestling, and the eventual fouling of his nest may indicate that the job was too much for one adult to perform. ”

“ Additionally, Seaside Sparrows sing from exposed perches such as tall cattail stems and tall or isolated marsh-elder bushes. Sharp-tailed Sparrows do not often use conspicuous perches for singing. They sing while on the ground or when in flight. They do use exposed perches as observation posts and occasionally sing from them.
Seaside Sparrows often face their nearest neighbor when singing and alternate songs with this bird. The one time Sharp-tailed Sparrows almost always sing is when they are involved in fighting. ”

“ Seaside Sparrows began singing the morning after their nocturnal arrival. For resident birds, singing is at its maximum at this time and is maintained at a high level throughout incubation. At hatching of the eggs, singing declines sharply; males then are busy aiding in care of the young. ”

“ When free from the shell, the young birds rest on their tarsi, abdomen and forehead; their down dries in a few minutes, and their skin becomes noticeably darker. One sparrow gaped five minutes after hatching and all the young gaped later the same day. ”

“ Seaside Sparrows average larger than Sharp-tailed Sparrows, and males average larger than females in both species. The average and range for each measurement taken on the sparrows is presented in Table 2. ”

“ The entire island, excluding the sand fill is not more than two feet above normal high tide. In August, 1955, abnormally high water, a result of hurricane "Connie", rose four to five feet and covered all but the tops of the bushes and a few mounds of sand. Low tides expose no mud flats for the edges of the marsh are nearly vertical banks and the water along the edges is more than one foot deep. ”

“ At hatching and throughout nestling life and post nestling life Seaside Sparrows average heavier than Sharp-tailed Sparrows of comparable age (Table 1) . Weights of adults of the two species that were netted or collected between May 6 and June 27, 1955, within two miles of Chadwick, Ocean County, New Jersey, follow: Fourteen males of Ammospiza maritima averaged 24.2 gm. ”

“ If the males range over an area four times as large as that of the females, theoretically, four times as many males should be caught at every placement of the net provided the net remained in place long enough to capture all the birds using the area. ”

“ A mated, banded pair of Seaside Sparrows in a dead marsh-elder bush near their nest. Note the abdomen of a moth protruding from the bill of the female on the right.
PLATE 4
Fig. a. A female Sharp-tailed Sparrow at the entrance to her nest. The throat on this bird is dark because of dye applied by me.
Fig. b. The nest of a Sharp-tailed Sparrow viewed from above. Stems of black grass were parted to take the picture. The outer rim of this nest (lower right) is made of living stems of black grass. ”

“ I suspect in the case of the few males studied on the marshes at Chadwick that the territories the males established (strips of cattails and adjacent shoreline) did not have suitable nesting cover, because these males were unmated on June 15 when I left this study area because of human interference. ”

“ A pan balance accurate to one-tenth of a gram was used for weighing. The adults were weighed in a cloth sack, the sack being weighed each time to prevent error owing to variable moisture and other factors. ”