The Saltmarsh Sparrow, Ammodramus caudacutus, is a small sparrow

American sparrow

American sparrows are a group of mainly New World passerine birds, forming part of the family Emberizidae. American sparrows are seed-eating birds with conical bills, brown or gray in color, and many species have distinctive head patterns....

. At one time, this bird and the Nelson's Sparrow

Nelson's Sparrow

The Nelson's Sparrow is a small sparrow. Adults have brownish upperparts with grey on the crown and nape, a cream-coloured breast with light or indistinct streaking and a white throat and belly; they have an orange face with grey cheeks and a short pointed tail.Their breeding habitat is marshes on...

 were thought to be a single species, the Sharp-tailed Sparrow. Because of this, the species was briefly known as "Saltmarsh Sharp-tailed Sparrow".

Adults have brownish upperparts with grey on the crown and nape, a cream-coloured breast with dark streaks and a white throat and belly; they have an orange face with grey cheeks and a short pointed tail.

Their breeding habitat is salt marsh

Marsh

In geography, a marsh, or morass, is a type of wetland that is subject to frequent or continuous flood. Typically the water is shallow and features grasses, rushes, reeds, typhas, sedges, other herbaceous plants, and moss....

es on the Atlantic coast of the United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 from southern Maine

Maine

Maine is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States, bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the east and south, New Hampshire to the west, and the Canadian provinces of Quebec to the northwest and New Brunswick to the northeast. Maine is both the northernmost and easternmost...

 to Virginia

Virginia

The Commonwealth of Virginia , is a U.S. state on the Atlantic Coast of the Southern United States. Virginia is nicknamed the "Old Dominion" and sometimes the "Mother of Presidents" after the eight U.S. presidents born there...

. The nest is an open cup located above the high tide

Tide

Tides are the rise and fall of sea levels caused by the combined effects of the gravitational forces exerted by the moon and the sun and the rotation of the Earth....

 line. Males compete for females but do not defend territories. Only females raise the young.

These birds migrate

Bird migration

Bird migration is the regular seasonal journey undertaken by many species of birds. Bird movements include those made in response to changes in food availability, habitat or weather. Sometimes, journeys are not termed "true migration" because they are irregular or in only one direction...

 further south along the eastern coast of the United States.

They forage on the ground or in marsh vegetation, sometimes probing in mud. They mainly eat insects, aquatic invertebrate

Invertebrate

An invertebrate is an animal without a backbone. The group includes 97% of all animal species – all animals except those in the chordate subphylum Vertebrata .Invertebrates form a paraphyletic group...

s and seeds.

The call is a raspy trill.

This bird's numbers are declining due to habitat loss partially due to human activity.

Book

• Greenlaw, J. S. and J. D. Rising. 1994. Sharp-tailed Sparrow (Ammodramus caudacutus). In The Birds of North America, No. 112 (A. Poole and F. Gill, Eds.). Philadelphia: The Academy of Natural Sciences; Washington, D.C.: The American Ornithologists’ Union.

Articles

• Benoit LK & Askins RA. (1999). Impact of the spread of Phragmites on the distribution of birds in Connecticut tidal marshes. Wetlands. vol 19, no 1. p. 194-208.

• Benoit LK & Askins RA. (2002). Relationship between habitat area and the distribution of tidal marsh birds. Wilson Bulletin. vol 114, no 3. p. 314-323.

• Chan YL, Hill CE, Maldonado JE & Fleischer RC. (2006). Evolution and conservation of tidal-marsh vertebrates: Molecular approaches. Studies in Avian Biology. vol 32, p. 54-75.

• Conway CJ & Droege S. (2006). A unified strategy for monitoring changes in abundance of birds associated with North American tidal marshes. Studies in Avian Biology. vol 32, p. 282-297.

• DiQuinzio DA, Paton PWC & Eddleman WR. (2001). Site fidelity, philopatry, and survival of promiscuous Saltmarsh Sharp-tailed Sparrows in Rhode Island. Auk. vol 118, no 4. p. 888-899.

• DiQuinzio DA, Paton PWC & Eddleman WR. (2002). Nesting ecology of saltmarsh sharp-tailed sparrows in a tidally restricted salt marsh. Wetlands. vol 22, no 1. p. 179-185.

• Erwin RM, Cahoon DR, Prosser DJ, Sanders GM & Hensel P. (2006). Surface elevation dynamics in vegetated Spartina marshes versus unvegetated tidal ponds along the mid-Atlantic coast, USA, with implications to waterbirds. Estuaries & Coasts. vol 29, no 1. p. 96-106.

• Erwin RM, Sanders GM & Prosser DJ. (2004). Changes in lagoonal marsh morphology at selected northeastern Atlantic coast sites of significance to migratory waterbirds. Wetlands. vol 24, no 4. p. 891-903.

• Erwin RM, Sanders GM, Prosser DJ & Cahoon DR. (2006). High tides and rising seas: Potential effects on estuarine waterbirds. Studies in Avian Biology. vol 32, p. 214-228.

• Fry AJ. (1999). Mildly deleterious mutations in avian mitochondrial DNA: Evidence from neutrality tests. Evolution. vol 53, no 5. p. 1617-1620.

• Gjerdrum C, Elphick CS & Rubega M. (2005). Nest site selection and nesting success in Saltmarsh breeding sparrows: The importance of nest habitat, timing, and study site differences. Condor. vol 107, no 4. p. 849-862.

• Greenlaw JS. (1993). Behavioral and morphological diversification in sharp-tailed sparrows (Ammodramus caudacutus) of the Atlantic coast. Auk. vol 110, no 2. p. 286-303.

• Grenier JL & Greenberg R. (2006). Trophic adaptations in sparrows and other vertebrates of tidal marshes. Studies in Avian Biology. vol 32, p. 130-139.

• Hanowski JM & Niemi GJ. (1990). An Approach for Quantifying Habitat Characteristics for Rare Wetland Birds. In Mitchell, R S, C J Sheviak and D J Leopold (Ed) New York State Museum Bulletin, No 471 Ecosystem Management: Rare Species and Significant Habitats; 15th Annual Natural Areas Conference and 10th Annual Meeting of the Natural Areas Association, Syracuse, New York, USA, June 6–9, 1988 Ix+314p New York State Museum: Albany, New York, USA Illus Maps Paper 51-56, 1990.

• Hodgman TP, Shriver WG & Vickery PD. (2002). Redefining range overlap between the Sharp-tailed Sparrows of coastal New England. Wilson Bulletin. vol 114, no 1. p. 38-43.

• Patten MA & Radamaker K. (1991). A Fall Record of the Sharp-Tailed Sparrow for Interior California USA. Western Birds. vol 22, no 1. p. 37-38.

• Post W. (1998). The status of Nelson's and saltmarsh sharp-tailed sparrows on Waccasassa Bay, Levy County, Florida. Florida Field Naturalist. vol 26, no 1. p. 1-6.

• Post W & Greenlaw JS. (2006). Nestling diets of coexisting salt marsh sparrows: Opportunism in a food-rich environment. Estuaries & Coasts. vol 29, no 5. p. 765-775.

• Rising JD & Avise JC. (1993). Application of genealogical-concordance principles to the taxonomy and evolutionary history of the sharp-tailed sparrow (Ammodramus caudacutus). Auk. vol 110, no 4. p. 844-856.

• Shriver WG, Gibbs JP, Vickery PD, Gibbs HL, Hodgman TP, Jones PT & Jacques CN. (2005). Concordance between morphological and molecular markers in assessing hybridization between sharp-tailed sparrows in New England. Auk. vol 122, no 1. p. 94-107.