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Sprague’s Pipit and Leconte’s Sparrow in Illinois 
By Dr. RICHARD R. GRABER 
Assoc. Wildlife Specialist, State Natural History Survey 
AS STATED IN the “A.O.U. Check-List of North American Birds” (fourth 
edition, 1981), the winter range for Sprague’s Pipit (Anthus spragueit) in- 
cludes Texas, Louisiana and Mississippi, and also eastern and central Mexi- 
co. This species has been included in reports on Christmas censuses in Okla- 
homa and Arkansas in recent years. Smith and Parmalee (Ill. State Mus. 
Pop. Sci. Ser., 4:45, 1955) summarize the three sight records of Sprague’s 
Pipit for Illinois, and consider the species’ occurrence in the state accidental. 
Knowing this, I was surprised to find several Sprague’s Pipits at two widely 
separated localities in southern Illinois during the winter of 1956-57. 
On January 10, 1957, while making a bird census on the flats of the Mis- 
sissippi river one mile south of Cora, Jackson County, Jean Graber and I 
saw at least three and possibly as many as five Sprague’s Pipits. I collected 
one of these and it proved to be an immature male with fine plumage and an 
almost completely ossified skull. It was extremely fat. Colors of fleshy parts 
were: iris, brown; feet, pale flesh yellow; upper mandible, light horn; and 
lower mandible, dark at tip but yellow otherwise. 
The Pipits were solitary and flushed within 35-50 feet of the observers. 
Their flight was undulatory, the birds usually rising in great bounds high 
into the sky almost out of sight, then returning to the ground in a steep, 
graceful dive. While in flight, the birds called at intervals of a few seconds. 
The call was sometimes a double “chink-chink,” but often only one audible 
note, entirely different from the call of the Water Pipit (Anthus spinoletta). 
A decided preference was shown for large alfalfa fields. When flushed, 
the Pipits invariably returned to the alfalfa though clover, small grain 
stubble, and grass fields were close at hand. This same habitat preference 
was shown by the Sprague’s Pipits which I found on the eastern edge of 
the state on Jan. 13, 1957, 1.7 miles south of Omaha in northern Gallatin 
County. Here, on a large alfalfa field, there were at least four Sprague’s 
Pipits and though individuals were flushed repeatedly they always returned 
to the same field. 
I found Pipits in the Omaha locality again on March 6, 1957. On this 
occasion I observed six or seven birds in two large alfalfa fields and col- 
lected a female which had slightly worn plumage and an unenlarged ovary. 
It weighed 23.8 grams and was not very fat. The fleshy parts were colored 
as described for the male collected near Cora. Dr. Milton Sanderson of the 
Illinois Natural History Survey identified the contents of this specimen’s 
stomach as follows: spider remains, curculionid weevils (larvae and adults 
of at least two species including an adult Hypera nigrirostris), and Lepi- 
doptera larvae (at least 3 species). 
I failed to find Sprague’s Pipits at localities north of those mentioned 
though I checked a number of fields that looked suitable. What is the status 
of Sprague’s Pipits in Illinois? Obviously this question cannot be answered 
with our present knowledge, but, in view of the number of birds seen in the 
winter of 1956-57, the species would appear to be more than an accidental 
visitant. It is suggested that Illinois ornithologists, particularly those in the 
