Figure 299. Le Conte’s Sparrows have been found wintering at scattered southern California locations; this one was photographed on 29 January 2003 at Niland, Imperial County (2003-002; Kenneth Z. Kurland).

 

Figure 300. It was long assumed that juvenal-plumaged Le Conte’s Sparrows were encountered only on the breeding grounds, but several California records, most of them from Southeast Farallon Island—where this one was captured on 11 September 1986—have showed that at least some birds undertake migration prior to initiating preformative molt (Pyle and Sibley 1992). Compare this bird (1987-054; Peter Pyle) with the first-winter Nelson’s Sharp-tailed Sparrow on the previous page (Figure 298) and the winter adult Le Conte’s Sparrow above.

 

Figure 431. Sharp tails are not limited to just the two suggestively named Ammodramus sparrows. This Le Conte’s Sparrow, the first for Imperial County, wintered from 17 December 2002 to 3 March 2003 at Niland, where it was photographed on 29 January. Figure 299 is a color image of this confiding individual (2003-002; Kenneth Z. Kurland).

 

Figure 432. Le Conte’s Sparrows are found in California primarily in fall (peaking in October) and winter (peaking between mid December and late January), with a minor peak in late May (all three between 21 and 26 May). The late-winter drop-off may at least partially reflect diminished efforts to relocate this skulking species after the Christmas Bird Count season has come and gone.

 

 

 

 

 

LE CONTE’S SPARROW Ammodramus leconteii (Audubon, 1844)

Accepted: 32 (91%)	Treated in Appendix H: no
Not accepted: 3	CBRC review: all records
Not submitted/reviewed: 1	Large color images: see Figures

This small sparrow’s northern breeding limit extends from northeastern British Columbia and the southern Northwest Territories east to central Quebec. The southern limit reaches from northern Montana east to northern Michigan. Most of these birds winter in the Southeast, from southern Texas, southern Missouri, and western Kentucky east to northern Florida, and the species rarely winters west to southeastern Colorado, north to central Kansas, central Illinois, and southern Indiana, and east to coastal Maryland. Migration is primarily through the center of the continent. This sparrow is casual to very rare along both the Atlantic coast (Nova Scotia southward) and the Pacific coast (southwestern British Columbia southward), with a smattering of records across the western interior (southern Yukon south to Arizona). The species has also been recorded just southwest of the normal winter range in Coahuila.

Le Conte’s Sparrow joined the California list on 13 October 1970, when a first-fall male was collected on Southeast Farallon Island (McCaskie 1975b). Fall vagrants account for about two-thirds of the state’s records (22 of 32), with bracketing dates of 11 September and 16 November and a peak during October (Figure 432). Roughly one record in five (7 of 32) involves a wintering bird, with bracketing dates of 27 November and 3 March. All three spring records fall between 21 and 26 May. More than half of the state’s records are from just two locales—Furnace Creek Ranch in Inyo County (11) and Southeast Farallon Island (8)—but records span nearly the length of the coast and four come from the southern deserts.

Pyle and Sibley (1992) reviewed the identification of Le Conte’s and other Ammodramus sparrows and noted that several California records from September have involved birds in full juvenal plumage (see Figure 300).