Black-chinned Sparrow

识别特征

The black-chinned sparrow is a small passerine, measuring 5 to .mw-parser-output .frac{white-space:nowrap}.mw-parser-output .frac .num,.mw-parser-output .frac .den{font-size:80%;line-height:0;vertical-align:super}.mw-parser-output .frac .den{vertical-align:sub}.mw-parser-output .sr-only{border:0;clip:rect(0,0,0,0);clip-path:polygon(0px 0px,0px 0px,0px 0px);height:1px;margin:-1px;overflow:hidden;padding:0;position:absolute;width:1px}5+3⁄4 in. (13–15 cm) in length, with a wingspan of roughly 7+3⁄4 in. (19–20 cm). It weighs 0.3–0.5 oz (9.0–14.8 g), with a median weight of 0.4 oz (11.3 g). Overall, it is a slender, round-headed bird, with a high crown and a long, notched tail, which is proportionately longer than that of other Spizella sparrows. The sexes are similar, though the male averages slightly larger. The adult's head and body are gray, and its back is reddish-brown with black streaks. It has a "poorly defined" whitish belly, and its rump and uppertail coverts are an unstreaked gray. The feathers in its wings and tail are dark brown with paler edges (white in the tail). In alternate plumage (during the breeding season), the male has extensive black on its chin, throat and the front of its face. It loses most or all of this black during the nonbreeding season; the oldest males may retain some black flecking. The female has little or no black on her face, chin, or throat at any point during the year. In basic plumage, males and females can be difficult to tell apart. The juvenile resembles a nonbreeding adult, but shows indistinct streaking on its underparts, and two faint wingbars. The head and underparts have a brownish wash, and its outer scapulars are tawny-colored. The legs and feet are dark brown or dusky, and the bill is small, stout, and pink. Recent fledglings may have darker bills, as well as notably short tails, yellow gapes, and paler gray heads.<p>Its call is a high, soft tsip or stip. In flight it gives a soft ssip, a call said to resemble that of the chipping sparrow. The song is a series of clear, high-pitched whistles that accelerate into a rapid trill, which typically rises in pitch. Though similar to the song of the field sparrow, it is higher-pitched and more "mechanical". The accelerating trill is said to sound like a dropped ping pong ball.<p>The combination of gray head and body is unique among New World sparrows. Though similar in plumage to the dark-eyed junco, the black-chinned sparrow is slimmer, and has a streaked back, brown edges to its wing feathers, and no white in its tail.

分类信息

German ornithologist Jean Louis Cabanis first described the black-chinned sparrow in 1851, using a specimen which is thought to have been collected near Mexico City. He called it Spinites atrogularis. Within the decade, most authorities had moved it to the genus Spizella, where it has remained since. It is one of six small New World sparrows in the genus, and is known to have hybridized with Brewer's sparrow, a congener. Mitochondrial DNA studies have shown that the field sparrow is its closest relative. There are four recognized subspecies:<p>The genus name Spizella is a diminutive of the Ancient Greek word spiza, meaning "finch". The species name atrogularis is a combination of the Latin ater, meaning "black" and gularis, meaning "-throated" (from gula, meaning "throat"). The common name "sparrow" is an English word which was in use prior to the 12th century. Though originally used for the house sparrow, a common European species, its usage expanded to the unrelated New World sparrows because of their similar appearance.

学名

Spizella atrogularis

命名信息

(Cabanis, 1851)

目

Passeriformes

科

Passerellidae

属

Spizella

分布与栖息地

The black-chinned sparrow breeds in the southwestern United States and throughout much of Mexico north of the Isthmus of Tehuantepec. It is regularly found from northern California east to western Texas, and as far north as southern Nevada and Utah, and has occurred as a vagrant or occasional breeder in Oregon and Colorado. A species of arid and semi-arid places, it lives in chaparral, sagebrush, pine-juniper woodlands, and other brushy shrubland. Much of its habitat is in remote, rugged, and rocky areas. It is significantly less common in edge habitat, and rare near the coast. It is found at elevations ranging from near sea level to 2,400 m (8,000 ft) in the United States, and from 300 to 2,500 m (980 to 8,200 ft) in Mexico. Some birds in Utah may move into desert ecotones as part of a post-breeding dispersal and some northern populations move into Chihuahuan Desert scrub during the winter. Most northern populations move south – primarily into Mexico – during the winter; some move to lower elevations as well. During migration, it is sometimes recorded in montane oak forest, but not in mixed pine-oak forest.

迁徙

Resident species

行为

Migration pattern: Resident species.

保护状况

Population trend: declining.

种群趋势

declining