A head shot as the bird watched me as I attempted to get closer for photos. The double malar stripe is well shown here.

Baird's Sparrow (Ammodramus bairdii) breeds in the northern great plains of North Dakota and Montana as well as parts of southern Manitoba, Alberta, and Saskatchewan. Its winter range, which is poorly known, includes parts of southern Arizona, New Mexico, west Texas and parts of northern Mexico. It can be a very difficult bird to find on the winter grounds due to its skulking habits as well as its tendency to run on the ground like a mouse. In Texas the species is considered a rarity, although it is probably overlooked much of the time. Records of this species in Texas should be thoroughly documented.

*SEE BELOW FOR PHOTOS ADDED JUNE 2001 AND JUNE 2007 FROM MONTANA!*

The photos on the upper part of this page were shot in early May, 1998 at Rio Grande Village, Big Bend National Park in Brewster Co., Texas with a Canon T-90 and FD 400mm F4.5 lens and 1.4X extender on Fuji Sensia 100. The camera and lens were mounted on a BushHawk shoulder mount. There had been a significant drought in west Texas that spring and less than 1/4 inch of rain had fallen in the past six months. Rio Grande Village was being irrigated with water from the Rio Grande and the standing water attracted a large number of sparrows, towhees, buntings and other birds. During a period of about 30 minutes I located three different Baird's Sparrows, the first I'd ever seen in Texas despite more than 20 years of actively birding this state!

The below photo shows the classic field mark often described in the field guides of an "orange or ochre central crown."

I made another visit to Medicine Lake N.W.R., in June, 2007. The next 27 mages of Baird's Sparrows were all taken on that visit with a Canon EOS 1D Mark III and EF 600mm F/4 L IS lens. Most images were taken with a 2X extender as well. My thanks to refuge manager Jerry Rodriguez and refuge biologist Beth Madden for providing information on plant species and for making my visit very enjoyable. The shot on the left shows a Baird's Sparrow peeking from an Alfalfa plant. The next shot down shows a Baird's Sparrow standing on the edge of the gravel auto tour road.

There was a several hundred acre area of grassland on the refuge which had been treated with herbicide to eliminate an exotic, invasive grass species. I found several Baird's Sparrows foraging in this brown habitat. One of the images below shows a worm in the bill of one bird. The brown, dead grass makes these images appear to be a winter scene, but this was in mid June with lush, green habitat only a few meters away.

The next three shots on the left show a territorial Baird's Sparrow perched in Crested Wheatgrass which is a non-native invasive grass which most refuges are making efforts to eliminate. This grass species is a real threat to grassland dependent bird species since it tends to take over an area and reduce the variety of other forbes and potential food items for nesting birds.

Baird's Sparrow nesting habitat usually is native prairie grassland with relatively few tall song perches. One native shrub which provides a convenient song perch is the Prairie Rose. The next five shots show this sparrow species perched on Prairie Rose.