Forages on the ground in wet areas and bare fields. Note that it walks rather than hops, and occasionally pauses to bob its tail upward.
Small and slender with a small head and bill. Grayish brown above with variable amounts of streaking below (from none to heavy). Color of underparts also varies from yellowish to cinnamon across their range.
Nonbreeding/immature birds have variable amounts of streaking on the breast. Note clean throat, white eyering, and small bill. Walks along the ground bobbing its tail. Flashes white outer tail feathers in flight.
Slender ground-dwelling bird with a short bill and small head. Grayish brown above with a pale eyering and eyebrow. Underparts vary from yellowish to cinnamon with variable amounts of streaking.
Nonbreeding/immature birds are grayish brown above with variable amounts of streaking below. Note short, thin bill, eyering, and pale eyebrow. Walks along the ground bobbing its tail.
A small, slim songbird with a short, thin bill, and medium-length tail, recalling a lark (or a sparrow, but lacking a sparrow’s heavier bill).
Larger than a Yellow-rumped Warbler, smaller than a White-crowned Sparrow.
sparrow-sized or smallerFour subspecies have been described. Over much of the continent, from Alaska to Greenland and south into New England, rubescens is the expected subspecies, and the very similar (if duller) pacificus inhabits the Pacific coastal states and British Columbia. In the Rocky Mountains, the larger subspecies alticola breeds; it has little to no streaking below in breeding plumage and can often show rich rosy or pink hues in the underparts. The very heavily streaked subspecies japonicus breeds mostly in northeastern Asia but is known as a fall and winter vagrant from western Alaska south to California.
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