DAKOTA SONG SPARROW 1523 



to south-central Texas (Fort Clark, Matagorda), southern Louisiana 

 (Main Pass), southern Mississippi (Biloxi), southern Alabama (Petit 

 Bois Island), southern Georgia (Grady County, St. Simons Island), 

 and South Carolina (Kershaw County, Mount Pleasant) ; casually 

 in northern Michigan (McMillan) and western Kansas (Seward 

 County). 



MELOSPIZA MELODIA JUDDI Bishop 



Dakota Song Sparrow 

 Contributed by Val Nolan Jr. 



Habits 



This breeding race of the great plains of Canada and of the northern 

 United States withdraws from much of its range in winter and spreads 

 southward and eastward as far as Florida. Early migrants return to 

 Canada in mixed flocks with tree sparrows, juncos, fox sparrows, and 

 other fringillids in March and April (Houston and Street, 1959). 



Thomas S. Roberts (1936) has described the habitat in Minnesota: 

 "Bushy meadows and the banks of lakes and streams are the chosen 

 dwelling-places, but it is not confined to such surroundings and may 

 be found almost anywhere about prairie groves, upland fields, clearings, 

 and gardens, shunning only the deep shade of heavy timber." Roberts 

 also quotes T. Martin Trippe, a pioneer Minnesota bird student, who 

 in 1871 noted that this shy bird of the brush prairies and thickets, 

 near water, was changing from "almost the wildness and timidity of a 

 wild-duck" to a confiding neighbor of man. 



Territory sizes under favorable conditions would probably approxi- 

 mate those stated above for euphonia and suggested for melodia. 

 However, Beer et al. (1956) report that song sparrows nesting on small 

 islands in Basswood Lake, Minn., regularly hold territories as small as 

 0.04 acre, which is the total area of each of two of the islands. Indeed, 

 territories of 0.05 acre each were held by two pairs present on a single 

 island, but one male was "definitely subordinate." Suthers (1960) 

 measured lake-shore territories on Lake Itasca, Minn., "to retain the 

 effects of shore line on size" while avoiding the probable effects of 

 insularity; territory sizes varied from 0.34 to 0.68 acre, averaged 0.47 

 acre, and were thus intermediate between those of island and mainland 

 territories. Comparison with work of Tompa (1962) on the race 

 morphna, below, is suggested. 



M. m.juddi is among the first birds to sing in spring, and descriptions 

 of the song resemble those of the eastern races. However, Louis B. 

 Bishop (1896), who described the race, found the song "quite different, 



