Vesper Sparrow Pooecetes gramineus Scientific name definitions

“I hear a bay-wing [Vesper Sparrow] on the railroad fence sing - the rhythm - somewhat like char, (or here here), che che, chip, chip, chip (fast), chitter, chitter, chitter chit (very fast and jingling), tchea ttchea (jinglingly). It has another strain, considerably different, but a second also sings the above. Two on different posts are steadily singing the same, as if contending with each other, notwithstanding the cold wind.”

Henry David Thoreau in his Journal entry for 13 April 1854 (Thoreau 1984).

Across grasslands, open valleys, and arid steppes, the beauty and exuberance of the setting sun is often matched by Vesper Sparrows, as they fill the evening with sweet song while affirming the passing day and appealing for safe passage through the coming night. The naturalist John Burroughs described the tinkling song of the Vesper Sparrow as particularly sweet and splendid in the evening, resulting in the name “Vesper.” This species sings in the morning and during the day, but often continues its double-noted song into the twilight of vespers, after most other birds have become still.

The Vesper Sparrow is a large, pale, brown-streaked sparrow with white outer tail feathers and rufous lesser wing coverts. Prior to the 1880s, it was known as the Grass Finch, the Bay-winged Bunting or Sparrow, and the “Hesperian Bird.” The Latin and Greek roots of its scientific name refer to its grass-dominated habitats (Pooecetes meaning “grass dweller” and gramineus meaning “fond of grass”).

A ground-dwelling species, it prefers dry grass fields, with some shrubs or similar structure, and is found in open habitats, including old fields, shrubsteppe, grasslands, and cultivated crop fields. In many areas the species responds quickly to changes in habitat; it is often the first species to occupy reclaimed mine sites and will abandon old farm fields as they return to forest.

The Vesper Sparrow was present but probably rare in its eastern range before European settlement; by about 1900, however, the species was considered common throughout its eastern range and one of the characteristic species where forests had been cleared. Today, it is undergoing a dramatic decline in the East as abandoned farmland reverts to forests. In the Midwest, it currently depends on row-crops and adjacent uncultivated lands, while, in the West, it continues to be common in shrubsteppe and open rangelands.

L. B. Best and colleagues used the Vesper Sparrow as the subject of many studies on the of birds to croplands (Best 1983a Best, L. B. (1983a). Bird use of fencerows: implications of contemporary fencerow management practice. Wildlife Society Bulletin 11:343-347. Close ; Rodenhouse and Best Rodenhouse and Best 1983 Rodenhouse, N. L. and L. B. Best. (1983). Breeding ecology of Vesper Sparrow in corn and soybean fields. American Midland Naturalist 110:265-275. Close , Rodenhouse and Best 1994 Rodenhouse, N. L. and L. B. Best. (1994). Foraging patterns of Vesper Sparrow (Pooecetes gramineus) breeding in cropland. American Midland Naturalist 131:196-206. Close ; Best and Rodenhouse 1984 Best, L. B. and N. L. Rodenhouse. (1984). Territory preference of Vesper Sparrows in cropland. Wilson Bulletin 96:72-82. Close ; Perritt and Best 1989 Perritt, J. E. and L. B. Best. (1989). Effects of weather on the breeding ecology of Vesper Sparrow in Iowa crop fields. American Midland Naturalist 121:355-360. Close ; Best and Gionfriddo 1991 Best, L. B. and J. P. Gionfriddo. (1991). Characterization of grit use by cornfield birds. Wilson Bulletin 103:68-82. Close ; Frawley and Best 1991 Frawley, B. J., and L. B. Best (1991). Effects of mowing on breeding bird abundance and species composition in alfalfa fields. Wildlife Society Bulletin 19: 135–142. Close ; Camp and Best 1994 Camp, M. and L. B. Best. (1994). Nest density and nesting success of birds in roadsides adjacent to rowcrop fields. American Midland Naturalist 131:347-358. Close ; Stallman and Best 1996 Stallman, H. R. and L. B. Best. (1996). Bird use of an experimental strip intercropping system in northeast Iowa. Journal of Wildlife Management 60:354-362. Close ); it has also been included in studies on responses to habitat disturbances (Best 1972 Best, L. B. (1972). First-year effects of sagebrush control on two sparrows. Journal of Wildlife Management 36:534-544. Close ; Whitmore Whitmore 1979a Whitmore, R. C. (1979a). Short-term change in vegetation structure and its effect on Grasshopper Sparrows in West Virginia. Auk 96:621-625. Close , Whitmore 1979b Whitmore, R. C. (1979b). Temporal variation in the selected habitats of a guild of grassland sparrows. Wilson Bulletin 91:592-598. Close ; Wray II et al. 1982 Wray II, T., K. A. Strait and R. C. Whitmore. (1982). Reproductive success of grassland sparrows on a reclaimed surface mine in West Virginia. Auk 99:157-164. Close ; Schaid et al. 1983 Schaid, T. A., D. W. Uresk, W. L. Tucher and R. L. Linder. (1983). Effects of surface mining on the Vesper Sparrow in the northern Great Plains. Journal of Range Management 36:500-503. Close ). This spe-cies has been the primary subject of studies that expanded our understanding of nestling development (Sutton Sutton 1935 Sutton, G. M. (1935). The juvenal plumage and postjuvenal molt in several species of Michigan sparrows. Cranbrook Institute of Science Bulletin 3. Bloomfield Hills, MI, USA. Close , Sutton 1941b Sutton, G. M. (1941b). The juvenal plumage and postjuvenal molt of the Vesper Sparrow. no. 1, Ann Arbor: Occas. Pap. Mus. Zool., Univ. Mich., 438. Close , Sutton 1960d Sutton, G. M. (1960d). The nesting fringillids of the Edwin S. George Reserve, southeastern Michigan. Pt. V. Jack Pine Warbler  38:2-15. Close ; Dawson and Allen 1960 Dawson, W. R. and J. M. Allen. (1960). Thyroid activity in nestling Vesper Sparrows. Condor 62:403-405. Close ; Dawson and Evans 1960 Dawson, W. R. and F. C. Evans. (1960). Relation of growth and development to temperature regulation in nestling Vesper Sparrows. Condor 62:329-340. Close ) and avian physiology (Salt 1954 Salt, W. R. (1954). The structure of the cloacal protuberance of the Vesper Sparrow (Pooecetes gramineus) and certain other passerine birds. Auk 71:64-73. Close , Ohmart and Smith 1971 Ohmart, R. D. and E. L. Smith. (1971). Water deprivation and use of sodium chloride solutions by Vesper Sparrows (Pooecetes gramineus). Condor 73:364-366. Close , Swain 1987 Swain, S. D. (1987). Overnight changes in circulating energy substrate concentrations in the Vesper Sparrows (Pooecetes gramineus). Comparative Biochemistry and Physiology 86A:439-441. Close ). Vesper Sparrows have also been the subject of studies on the ecology of grassland birds (Askins 1999a Askins, R. A. (1999a). History of grassland birds in eastern North America. In Ecology and Conservation of Grassland Birds of the Western Hemisphere (P. D. Vickery and J. R. Herkert, Editors). Studies in Avian Biology 19. pp. 60–71. Close ), particularly in Maine (Vickery et al. Vickery et al. 1992a Vickery, P. D., Jr. Hunter, M. L. and J. V. Wells (1992). Evidence of incidental nest predation and its effects on nests of threatened grassland birds. Oikos 63:281-288. Close , Vickery et al. 1992b Vickery, P. D., Jr. Hunter, M. L. and J. V. Wells. (1992b). Is density an indicator of breeding success? Auk 109:706-710. Close , Vickery et al. 1992c Vickery, P. D., Jr. Hunter, M. L. and J. V. Wells. (1992c). Use of a new reproductive index to evaluate relationship between habitat quality and breeding success. Auk 109:697-705. Close , Vickery et al. 1994 Vickery, P. D., Jr., M. L. Hunter, and S. M. Melvin (1994). Effects of habitat area on the distribution of grassland birds of Maine. Conservation Biology 8:1087-1097. Close , Vickery et al. 1999a Vickery, P. D., Jr., M. L. Hunter, and J. V. Wells (1999). "Effects of fire and herbicide treatment on habitat selection in grassland birds in southern Maine." In Ecology and conservation of grassland birds of the Western Hemisphere., edited by P. D. Vickery and J. R. Herkert, 149-159. Studies in Avian Biology 19. Close ) and the western and central United States (Wiens 1969 Wiens, J. A. (1969). An approach to the study of ecological relationships among grassland birds. Ornithological Monographs 8:1-93. Close ; Rotenberry and Wiens Rotenberry and Wiens 1980a Rotenberry, J. T. and J. A. Wiens. (1980a). Habitat structure, patchiness, and avian communities in North American steppe vegetation: a multivariate analysis. Ecology 61:1228-1250. Close , Rotenberry and Wiens 1980b Rotenberry, J. T. and J. A. Wiens. (1980b). Temporal variation in habitat structure and shrubsteppe bird dynamics. Oecologia 47:1-9. Close ; Wiens and Rotenberry Wiens and Rotenberry 1981b Wiens, J. A. and J. T. Rotenberry (1981). Habitat associations and community structure of birds in shrubsteppe environments. Ecological Monographs 5:21-41. Close , Wiens and Rotenberry 1985 Wiens, J. A. and J. T. Rotenberry. (1985). Response of breeding passerine birds to rangeland alterations in a North American shrubsteppe locality. Journal of Applied Ecology 22:655-668. Close ).