The Use of Space by Wintering Sparrows

Differences in microhabitat utilization by sparrows wintering in southeastern Arizona, USA may be sufficient to explain their coexistence. The species either forage in different macrohabitats or in the same habitat at different distances from tree or shurb cover. Seed size partitioning within habitats is sufficient to explain coexistence only in one case where the seed size distribution is bimodal. The species that forage in plains grassland habitat differ by foraging in concentric rings about tree or shrub cover. The behavior of each of these species appears to enhance predator avoidance and these behaviors change in a regular pattern with distance to cover both within and between species. Species foraging close to cover are social and tend to be conspicuous both in behavior and morphology. Two different strategies adapt species to avoiding predators at great distances to cover. In dense grassland, with increasing distance to shrub or tree cover, species in the genus Ammodramus are increasingly solitary and cryptic. In sparse grassland, Chestnut—collared Longspurs are social and cryptic on the ground but conspicuous in flight.