Reichwald's Sparrow

 

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Reichwald’s Sparrow, Novaspiza cerviniventris  L 11-15 cm, WS 18-22 cm, Family: Passerellidae

IUCN Conservation Status: Least concern (LC)

 

Description:    

Small to medium-sized sparrow with a long tail, short, rounded wings, and a conical bill. Dull brown above, cream to white below, with dark cap and eye stripe and single whitish wing-bar. Crown often raised to give a peaked or crested appearance. Heavily streaked on back, faint streaking on flanks. Throat, breast, and sides buff or cream colored, belly white. Males and females indistinguishable, juveniles browner overall, with heavier streaking. Best distinguished from other native sparrows by dark cap and bicolored undersides.

Voice:

Very vocal. Song is a complex series of buzzes, trills, and sharp notes, often lasting around one to two seconds. The song is similar to that of the Horus Sparrow, but less musical and usually begins with a low buzzy trill. Sings often and calls more frequently. Calls variable, but include sharp chits, buzzes, and notably a harsh, shrill chatter typical of the genus. The chatter calls sound similar to scold calls and are often described as sounding like a “heated argument” and can be constant, especially in flocks.  

Range and Habitat:    

Seasonal migrants, breeding range includes most of Novasola, but most populations will migrate to spend the winter in warmer areas like the south and eastern coasts and will avoid high elevations and the prairie interior. Western populations are less migratory to entirely non-migratory. They breed in thickets and shrub-dominated ecosystems like scrubland and chaparral, riparian thickets, grassland, meadows, wetlands, and forest edges, but may winter in more varied habitat including forest interiors, coastal dunes, and agricultural areas and suburbs.

Discussion:      

Small birds of dense thickets, Reichwald’s Sparrows are widespread but often overlooked and difficult to identify. Because they breed in remote areas and prefer areas of impenetrable vegetation, they are only seen sporadically, usually during the winter when they flock and are more likely to use areas accessible to us humans. Reichwald’s, and the closely related Artemis Sparrow, are unique among sparrows for their calls and nomadic behavior.

Reichwald’s Sparrows are short distance migrants, never leaving Novasola but moving around the island in response to winter weather, and they have notably low site fidelity, meaning they do not often return to the same breeding areas each year, which makes studying them difficult, as it is almost impossible to predict where an individual sparrow may end up each season. Males are especially nomadic, even during the breeding season, as they don’t defend territories and may move great distances over the duration of the season.

During the mating season, male Reichwald’s Sparrows will sing from within shrubs or thickets constantly throughout the day to attract females. Males do not defend territories, so once a female has mated with them they will move on. Females do all the work building nests, incubating eggs, and rearing chicks. Nests are built just above the ground, usually a few inches to a foot high in thick woody understory cover, especially in manzanita, ceanothus, rhododendron, willow, alder, or marsh reeds.

Reichwald’s Sparrows forage low or near the ground, preferring dense cover, hopping along the leaf litter or in between branches and thickets in search of food. Their diets include invertebrates like beetles, caterpillars, flies, grasshoppers, dragonflies, and worms, as well as berries and seeds, especially during the winter. Social birds, most sparrows will forage in small flocks, and larger flocks will form during the winter. Flocks are more likely to consist of males, as they migrate and move across the island, while females are more solitary, especially during the breeding season. It is while foraging Reichwald’s Sparrows emit their distinctive chattering calls, harsh and constant. This aggressive, argumentative sounding, scold-like calling is likely a social behavior meant to strengthen flock relationships, as it is rarely heard from solitary individuals. They may also be found in mixed flocks with other sparrows.

Originally named the Buff-sided Sparrow, the scientific name Novaspiza comes from the Latin words for “new” and “finch/sparrow” and the species name comes from the Latin roots cervus, for “deer/elk”, and ventralis, “sides or belly”. The genus is unique to Novasola, with two accepted species, each originally described by Richard Reichwald in 1902. The name Buff-sided Sparrow was eventually replaced with Reichwald’s Sparrow to honor its discoverer and the most prolific ornithologist in Novasolan history. In recent years there has been an international push to change all eponymous bird names in an attempt to remove "ownership" of species and not to honor problematic historical figures; those who wish to see this bird's common name changed prefer the Buff-sided Sparrow name. The Yukandaluk word for the bird, and the other species in its genus the Artemis Sparrow, is sinixtuqcucix, roughly meaning “angry/spiteful bird”, and they feature in prairie tribe mythology, often as a humorous but narcissistic character.

Identifying sparrows can pose a challenge for beginner birders, as they can be difficult to tell apart and often more difficult to get a good look at. This is perhaps typified by the Reichwald’s Sparrow, whose habitat preferences and mobile behaviors make them especially hard to observe. To best distinguish them from other sparrows, use location and sound. Constant harsh, buzzy calling from within thick stands of scrub like manzanita and rhododendron is a giveaway and can serve as a tell-tale sign of their presence throughout Novasola’s wilderness.  

“We have been in this most difficult place for six days, yet it seems each hour brings something new, such that our work here has ceased for naught but sleep, and many of the men have begun to crack in their facade, exhibiting those signs of wear of fatigue and irritability. The country here is impregnable with thickets and thorns. The manzanita may as much be a plant as an ankle-breaker, and the brambles of thorny scrub are enough to deter even bears. Having spent such time here, we have already explored all that easier country of buckwheat and oak and have only maddening chaparral left.

But this fortress of foliage is manned by its own fauna, which by virtue of unnavigable habitat have mostly remained undiscovered, and today I have made one more small encroachment. This morning, before the sun at its pleasure graced these lowlands with any warmth or glow, I climbed from camp into the only stretch of thornless land yet remaining, a shallow valley through which a small, clear stream trickled east to the Kusasha, surrounded by walls of willow. Standing still just long enough for the damp valley ground to soak my moccasins, I heard a sweet medley of notes in a song unfamiliar to me. Not long after I heard the song did I find its performer, a crested sparrow flitting about the willows. The bird sang at even intervals for the next forty minutes as I did my best to catch a glimpse, myself successful only at observing flashes of brown and cream amid the leaves.” – Expedition log, April 29, 1902

“The first signs of fall migration fly overhead this evening, and it seems the breeding season for all but the latest birds has come and gone. These dispersals to the wintering grounds afford me more and easier chances to obtain, observe, or discover those birds which have yet alluded me, no longer including the sparrow which only this morning I could add to my list. Just after sunrise I witnessed a most passionate debate between a flock of three sparrows foraging in the low oaks. This was the first time I have had long, unobstructed view of that species which has on so many occasions made encounters difficult. This Buff Sided Sparrow would benefit me to settle in place so that I might become somewhat familiar with it.” – Expedition log, August 26, 1902

“Here the river widened, but shallowed, into something of a swamp, flooding this shallow valley with wet meadows and murky pools. Navigation upriver seems neither simple or necessary, and Captain Dyer opted to make this valley our point of portage, with our journey now overland, or over-swamp. At the entrance to the valley was a most unique rock formation, shaped such that it was quickly named by our group Horse Head Bluff, a convention which then has extended to this marsh, now the Horse Head Valley.

…

It seems to me the most numerous inhabitant of this valley, and much to my surprise, is that charismatic if not elusive Buff Sided Sparrow. Flocks of decent size have appeared and disappeared between the alders and tamarack, with more audible in the forest hills. It is at the present unclear if this density is permanent or a product of migration.” – Expedition log, October 30, 1902

“That name [Buff-sided Sparrow] is not just uninspired but unhelpful, considering the number of other birds who could just as easily fit the description. Why not instead honor the man whose legacy already includes this bird’s discovery?” – Ornithologist J. Patrick Edgars in a letter calling for the renaming of the Reichwald’s Sparrow, 1948