DUSKY SEASIDE SPARROW 857 



it "A buzzy cut-a-zhceeeee (like maritima) vaguely suggestive of 

 Florida Red-wing in pattern, but not in quality." 



Howell (1932) writes: "Comparing their song with that of [A. m.] 

 pelonota, which I had been hearing a few days previously, I noted a 

 similarity but some differences. It begins with a single (rarely double) 

 liquid note, followed by a short, buzzing trill. It is not so long nor so 

 loud as the song of the Smjrna Seaside, and the final 'buzz' is more 

 pronounced." 



The song varies considerably between birds, and some variation 

 may be e\'ident in the songs of an individual bird. One extreme was a 

 male who always threw back his head and uttered a single, high- 

 pitched lisp. Another, whose normal song was the usual e-eedle- 

 reeeee, trespassed on a neighboring territory momentarily and sang 

 Tsui- Tsui-tsui-twe-twe-twe. 



The flight song is apparently used only for courting and is seldom 

 heard after mid-June. The bird starts from an exposed perch with a 

 chip-chip-chip, then takes off on fluttering wings and climbs 10 to 

 20 feet in the air, uttering rapid chips all the way up. Hovering a 

 moment at the crest of his flight, he descends at an angle to another 

 perch, giving two or three very fast renditions of his normal territorial 

 chipereeeee-chipereeee. 



I once heard a juvenile give a high-pitched, squeaky call that 

 sounded hke Psi-psi-psi-psivee, after which it flew into a bush with 

 an adult, and both proceeded to scold me with the chip-chip alarm 

 note. Females also utter similar squeaky lisps while tending flying 

 juveniles. I heard one female fly from her nest calling tu-tu-tii-tu- 

 twi-tivi-twi. 



Field marks. — Peterson (1947) notes: "About size of Seaside 

 Sparrow, but upper parts blackish, and under parts heavily streaked 

 with black. * * * any Seaside Sparrow seen in the Titusville 

 area in summer is this species." In the fall and winter both northern 

 seaside and sharp-tailed sparrows frequent these marshes. The 

 adult dusky is much darker than any of these, and larger than the 

 sharp-tails. The ju venal dusky is more difficult to distinguish, but 

 it is somewhat darker and should be molting into blacker winter 

 dress when the northern birds arrive. From the Savannah and 

 swamp sparrows which also winter in the salt marshes, the seasides 

 may be told by their low, level, and more fluttery flight. 



Enemies. — The chief enemy of the dusky seems to be man and his 

 works. Nicholson (MS.) writes that from 1942 to about 1953 the 

 coastal marshes were sprayed from aircraft with insecticides, mainly 

 DDT, to control mosquitoes. By 1957 he estimated this had reduced 

 the dusky population by at least 70 percent. Hickcj^ (1961) points 

 out how especially serious the use of insecticides is to bird species of 



