LeConte's Sparrow - A Denizen of Wet Meadows

 Photo by Brian Sullivan

LeConte’s Sparrow is a denizen of wet meadows and abandoned hayfields (assuming some nimrod hasn’t built a house there yet) throughout the Upper Midwest and Prairie Canada. They winter in the southern and southeastern United States and seem to be particularly fond of wire grass prairie in the Florida Panhandle in winter

Their distinctive voice, if you can still hear it, sounds like the bird is saying “Chick-eeeeeze” with a sharp emphasis on the “Chick”. Like it’s cousin Henslow’s Sparrow, LeConte’s has an excruciatingly high pitched voice, well above 10,000 cycles per second.

I heard and saw my first one on a chilly May morning in 1974 in Chippewa County, Wisconsin. The Wisconsin Society for Ornithology held its annual convention in Chippewa Falls (home of Leinenkugel’s Beer) and Sam Robbins was leading one of the pre-convention field trips.

Sam was legendary. Not only was he author of the authoritative “Wisconsin Birdlife” published by the University of Wisconsin Press, but he also had the most acute hearing of any person I ever knew.

On the morning of our field trip we were standing by a wet meadow by 4:30. The eastern sky was just turning a faint light when Sam’s hand shot up in the air “LeConte’s Sparrow!”, he declared. We mere mortals listened and heard nothing

A few minutes later Sam said “There it is again!” We all heard nothing. The bird was off to the east and a gentle breeze was blowing from the west. Sam surmised that the LeConte’s Sparrow was facing east as it sang so it’s voice was being carried away from us by the wind.

“Don’t worry,” Sam said. “The bird will soon turn around and you’ll hear it.” A couple minutes later we all heard the faint but emphatic “Chick eeeeze”. Sam smiled and said “It’s turned and is facing us”

Despite being obligate to wet grassy areas for nesting they use multiple habitats on migration. I will never forget the day in early October 1981 when my then four year old daughter Jennifer and I were hunting Sharp-tailed Grouse near Chase Lake National Wildlife Refuge in North Dakota. A recently harvested sunflower field next to the refuge was alive with hungry LeConte’s Sparrows. I counted 210 of them before Jenny became bored and demanded that we go back to hunting grouse.

Photo by Connie Cady

If you live in LeConte’s Sparrow nesting range look and listen for them beginning about May 10. The Bear Lake Sedge Meadow State Natural Area just west of Haugen, Wisconsin, is the best place in Barron County to find them. Bob Janssen, co-author of the “Birds of Minnesota” holds the honorable distinction of having recorded LeConte’s Sparrow in each of Minnesota’s 87 counties. I bet nobody will ever tie that record!