PHOTO OF CUOSELY REUATED SUBSPECIES 



CREDIT: HERBERT CLARKE 



SANTA BARBARA SONG SPARROW 



Melospiza melodia graminea Townsend (1890) 



KINGDOM Animalia 



CLASS Aves 



ORDER Passeriformes 



FAMILY Fringillidae 



OTHER COMMON 



NAMES Bell Finch, Coast Song 



Sparrow, California Song Sparrow. 



DATE 



Entered into SWIS To be determined 



Updates To be determined 



LEGAL STATUS 



Federal: Endangered. (42 FR 36427), 14 July 

 1977. 



States: Protected: California. 



REASONS FOR CURRENT STATUS 



There is general agreement among ornitho- 

 logists who have searched for song sparrows on 

 Santa Barbara Island during the breeding season 

 that the subspecies M. m. graminea is extinct (G. 

 L. Hunt, Jr. pers. comm. to J. W. Aldrich, 18 

 Aug. 1972, and Warren King, 26 March 1974; 

 Small and Henderson 1974). The main reason for 

 its decline and extinction was elimination of 

 dense vegetation over the entire island by feral 

 domestic rabbits whose population exploded 

 from 1953-1959; and, finally, extensive fire in 

 1959 that destroyed the remaining vegetation and 

 litter down to the mineral soil. Feral cats, which 

 were numerous in earlier times, along with bam 

 owls {Tyto alba) and American kestrels {Falco 

 sparverius) may have contributed to the decline, 

 particularly after the 1959 fire destroyed the 

 concealing vegetation (Small and Henderson 

 1974). 



