Botteri's Sparrow

Overview

Botteri's Sparrow: Medium-sized sparrow with brown-streaked, gray upperparts and pale gray underparts. Bill is gray. Wings are tinged rust-brown. Tail is gray-brown, long, and round-tipped. Short flights with rapidly beating wing strokes alternating with wings pulled briefly to sides.

Range and Habitat

Botteri's Sparrow: Breeds in southeastern Arizona and southern Texas. Spends winters south of U.S.-Mexico border. Preferred habitats include open arid country such as grasslands, savannas, and desert-scrub.

INTERESTING FACTS

The Botteri’s Sparrow was named after ornithologist Matteo Botteri, who in 1957 collected the bird in Mexico.
They prefer ungrazed or lightly grazed grasslands; heavier grazing creates vegetation that is too low or weedy, and a decline in grasshoppers, which are a major prey item.
They were probably more widespread during the nineteenth century, but overgrazing during the 1880s and 1890s eliminated most suitable habitats, and probably significantly reduced the breeding population.
A group of sparrows has many collective nouns, including a "crew", "flutter", "meinie", "quarrel", and "ubiquity" of sparrows.

The Botteri's Sparrow has a large global range, estimated at 980,000 square kilometers. It is native to Belize, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Nicaragua, Mexico, and the United States, but has been found in Honduras as well. The bird prefers climates that are subtropical or tropical and dry, and typically lives in a forest, shrubland, or grassland area that meets these climate criteria. The global population of the bird is estimated to be between 500,000 and 5,000,000. While the population trends have not been fully quantified, the species is not believed to meet criteria for population decline that would include the species on the IUCN Red List. Because of this, the evaluation level of Botteri's Sparrow is Least Concern.